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Timeline of biology and organic chemistry
A Timeline of significant events in biology and organic chemistry
Before 1600
- c. 520 B.C. - Alcmæon of Croton distinguished veins from arteries and discovered the optic nerve.
- c. 500 B.C. - Sushruta - wrote Sushruta Samhita describing over 120 surgical instruments, 300 surgical procedures and classified human surgery in 8 categories. Performed cosmetic surgery.
- c. 500 B.C. - Xenophanes examined fossils and speculated on the evolution of life.
- c. 350 B.C. - Aristotle attempted a comprehensive classification of animals. His written works included Historia Animalium, a general biology of animals, De Partibus Animalium, a comparative anatomy and physiology of animals, and De Generatione Animalium, on developmental biology.
- c. 320 BC - Theophrastos (or Theophrastus) begins the systematic study of botany.
- c. 300 B.C. - Herophilos dissected the human body.
- c. 300 B.C. - Diocles wrote the first known anatomy book and was the first to use the term anatomy.
- c. 50-70 - Historia Naturalis by Pliny the Elder (Gaius Plinius Secundus) was published in 37 volumes.
- 130-200 - Claudius Galen wrote numerous treatises on human anatomy.
- c. 1010 - Avicenna (Ibn Sina or Abu Ali al Hussein ibn Abdallah) published his Canon of Medicine (Kitab al-Qanun fi al-tibb).
1600-1800
1800-1899
1900-1949
1950-1989
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1951 - Robert Woodward synthesizes cholesterol and cortisone.
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1952 - Alfred Hershey and Martha Chase use radioactive tracers to show that DNA is the genetic material in bacteriophage viruses.
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1952 - Fred Sanger, Hans Tuppy , and Ted Thompson complete their chromatographic analysis of the insulin amino acid sequence.
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1952 - Rosalind Franklin uses X-ray diffraction to study the structure of DNA and suggests that its sugar-phosphate backbone is on its outside.
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1953 - James D. Watson and Francis Crick propose a double helix structure for DNA.
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1953 - Max Perutz and John Kendrew determine the structure of hemoglobin using X-ray diffraction studies.
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1953 - Stanley Miller shows that amino acids can be formed when simulated lightning is passed through vessels containing water, methane, ammonia, and hydrogen.
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1955 - Severo Ochoa discovers RNA polymerase enzymes.
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1955 - Arthur Kornberg discovers DNA polymerase enzymes.
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1960 - Juan Oro finds that concentrated solutions of ammonium cyanide in water can produce the nucleotide organic base adenine.
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1960 - Robert Woodward synthesizes chlorophyll.
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1967 - John Gurden uses nuclear transplantation to clone a clawed frog ; first cloning of a vertebrate.
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1968 - Fred Sanger uses radioactive phosphorus as a tracer to chromatographically decipher a 120 base long RNA sequence.
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1970 - Hamilton Smith and Daniel Nathans discover DNA restriction enzymes.
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1970 - Howard Temin and David Baltimore independently discover reverse transcriptase enzymes.
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1972 - Robert Woodward synthesizes vitamin B-12.
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1972 - Stephen Jay Gould and Niles Eldredge propose punctuated equilibrium effects in evolution.
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1972 - SJ Singer and GL Nicholson develop the fluid mosaic model, which deals with the make-up of the membrane of all cells.
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1974 - Manfred Eigen and Manfred Sumper show that mixtures of nucleotide monomers and RNA replicase will give rise to RNA molecules which replicate, mutate, and evolve.
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1974 - Leslie Orgel shows that RNA can replicate without RNA-replicase and that zinc aids this replication.
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1977 - John Corliss , Jack Dymond , Louis Gordon , John Edmond , Richard von Herzen , Robert Ballard, Kenneth Green , David Williams, Arnold Bainbridge , Kathy Crane , and Tjeerd van Andel discover chemosynthetically based animal communities located around submarine hydrothermal vents on the Galapagos Rift .
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1977 - Walter Gilbert and Allan Maxam present a rapid gene sequencing technique which uses cloning, base destroying chemicals, and gel electrophoresis.
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1977 - Fred Sanger and Alan Coulson present a rapid gene sequencing technique which uses dideoxynucleotides and gel electrophoresis.
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1978 - Fred Sanger presents the 5,386 base sequence for the virus PhiX174; first sequencing of an entire genome.
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1982 - Concept of prions introduced by Stanley B. Prusiner
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1983 - Kary Mullis invents the polymerase chain reaction.
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1984 - Alec Jeffreys devises a genetic fingerprinting method.
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1985 - Harry Kroto, J.R. Heath , S.C. O'Brien , R.F. Curl, and Richard Smalley discover the unusual stability of the buckminsterfullerene molecule and deduce its structure.
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1986 - Alexander Klibanov demostrates that enzymes can function in non-aqueous environments.
1990-present
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1990 - Wolfgang Krätschmer , Lowell Lamb , Konstantinos Fostiropoulos , and Donald Huffman discover that Buckminsterfullerene can be separated from soot because it is soluble in benzene.
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1996 - Dolly the sheep is first clone of an adult mammal.
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2001 - Publication of the first drafts of the complete human genome.
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2003 - First virus produced 'from scratch'.
See also
FootnoteThe date at which the Sushruta Samhita was compiled is uncertain.
A Tribute to Hinduism says Sushruta lived in the 5th century B.C., and so the date 500 B.C. may be too early.
Last updated: 08-10-2005 15:22:04
Last updated: 09-02-2005 16:52:30
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