2013, Scientists cloned a cell from a human baby
with a rare genetic disorder. This created a source of embryonic stem cells
that could be used in treatment.
20/5/2010, Craig Venter announced the
creation of the world’s first synthetic organism.
11/8/2004, The first licences for the cloning of human embryos
were granted in Britain.
28/5/2003, The first horse cloned by Italian scientists, Prometea, was born
14/4/2003, The Human Genome Project, to completely map
the human genome, was completed.
15/2/2001, An initial version of the Human Genome Sequence was released.
23/7/1998, A team of scientists at the University of Hawaii,
led by Ryuzo Yanagimachi, announced
they had produced three generations of cloned mice.
24/2/1997. The cloned sheep, Dolly,
was presented to the public. She had been cloned from a single cell of her
mother at the Royal Institute in Edinburgh. There was moral panic about the
possibility of cloning humans, but some
saw it as a useful way to create organs for transplant. Lamb 6LL3 was named
after Dolly Parton. The animal died
prematurely in February 2003.
1987, Two calves, called Fusion
and Copy, were successfully cloned from embryonic cells.
5/1/1987, Genetic
fingerprinting was first used to catch a murderer, Colin Pitchfork. Police asked
all men in Narborough, Leicestershire, to take DNA tests after two 15 year old
girls were killed.
1984, An egg
cell emptied of its nucleus was fused with a cell from a lamb embryo, resulting
in the birth of three live cloned lambs.
22/11/1981, Hans Krebs, British biochemist,
died aged 81.
1977, Genetech began to synthesis medicines by
use of recombinant DNA.
31/5/1976, J L Monod, French biochemist, died aged 66.
24/4/1976, Henrik Dam, Danish biochemist, died aged 81.
1975, The technique of cellular
transfer of nuclear material was used to succesfuly transfer material in
mammalian cell.
1973, Stanley Cohen (Stanford
University) and Herbert
Boyer (University of California) inserted recombinant DNA into a
bacteria which then cloned this new DNA. This was the start of genetic
engineering.
1972, Paul Berg, st Stanford
University, combined the DNA from two different viruses.
1970, At John Hopkins
University, Hamilton
Smith and Daniel Nathans discovered restriction enzymes,
chemical scissors that snipped RNA molecules.
1965, RNA synthesis of protein
was achieved in a test tube; the code of three bases for each amino acid was
discovered.
25/4/1953, James Watson and Francis Crick described the
double-helix structure of DNA in
Nature magazine.
1952, A tadpole was cloned using
the new technique of transfer of cellular nuclearnaterial to a new cell.
17/4/1946, George Kohler, German biologist, was born
(died 1995).
4/12/1945, T H Morgan, US biologist, died aged 79.
1944, O A T Overy of Rockerfeller
University, working with the pneumonia bacterium, established that genes were
made from DNA.
22/12/1942, Franz Boas, anthropologist, born 9/7/1858 in
Minden, Germany, died in New York.
7/3/1938, David Baltimore, US biologist, was born.
19/7/1936, Herbert Boyer, biotechnologist,
was born.
27/2/1936, Death of Ivan Pavlov
(born 14/9/1849 in Ryazan, Russia). He is famous for his work on conditioned
reflexes in dogs.
19/5/1933, Edward de Bono,
who developed the concept of lateral thinking, was born.
1932, In Germany the biochemist Hans Krebs
described the citric acid cycle in cells, where sugars, fats and proteins are
converted into carbon dioxide, water and energy,
1921, The first polygraph (lie
detector) was built, by John Larson of the Berkely Police
Department, California.
28/8/1919, Sir Godfrey Hounsfield, who invented the EMI
scanner and winner of the Nobel prize for psychology in 1979, was born.
1913, Richard Willstatter discovered the composition
of chlorophyll. In the US, E McCollum isolated vitamin A.
9/2/1910, J L Monod, French biochemist, was born (died
1976).
1902, A salamander became the
first vertebrate to be ‘cloned’ using the technique of splitting a two-celled
embryo.
18/5/1901, Vincent du Vigneaud, US biochemist, was born.
28/2/1901, Dr Linus Pauling, American biochemist and
twice winner of the Nobel Prize, was born in Portland, Oregon.
25/1/1900, Theodosius Dobzhansky, Russian-American
biologist who studied population genetics, was born in Nemtrov, Russia.
13/11/1893, Adelbert Edward Doisy, US biochemist, was born
in Hume, Illinois.
5/11/1892, John Haldane, pioneer in genetic research, was born.
1885,
Two-celled seas urchins were split into single cells, which developed into the
first pair of genetically-identical ‘cloned’ organisms.
6/1/1884, Gregor Mendel, Augustine monk and botanist who
pioneered the study of genetics, died in Brunn, Austria, aged 62.
19/4/1882. Charles Darwin,
who developed his theory of evolution, died aged 73 near Orpington, Kent. He
was buried in Westminster Abbey.
1869, Gregor Mendel’s experiments with
pea plants helped establish the mechanisms of heredity.
24/11/1859. Charles Darwin, born 12/2/1809, published The Origin of the Species.
1/7/1858. Charles Darwin
first presented his theory of evolution, to the Linnean Society.
18/6/1858, Charles Darwin received a letter from Alfred Russell
Wallace, who had formulated a theory of evolution through survival of the
fittest. This was close to Darwin’s ideas in his as yet unpublished Origin of the Species.
15/10/1852, Friedrich Ludwig Jahn, founder of the
gymnastic movement (Turnverein) in Germany, died at Freyburg aged 74.
22/2/1794, German physiologist Kaspar Wolff died in St
Petersburg, Russia.
22/3/1788, Pierre Pelletier was born in Paris. In 1817 he
jointly discovered chlorophyll with Joseph Bienaime Caventou (born 30/6/1795 in
Saint Omer, France).
1/8/1744, The Chevalier de Lamarck, naturalist, was born.
9/9/1841, Augustin Candolle, Swiss
botanist (born 4/2/1778) died.
1/7/1838. Charles Darwin presented a paper on his evolutionary theory.
1837, The significance of chlorophyll to plant photosynthesis was
realised by the French scientist Rene Joachim Henri Dutrochet, 61.
27/12/1831. The Admiralty survey ship The Beagle left
Plymouth with Charles Darwin on board
on a scientific voyage around the world. This led to Darwin’s controversial book, The
Origin of the Species. Darwin was inspired by Professor Henslow (1796-1861), a
renowned mineralogist at Cambridge, 13 years older than Darwin, who was elected
unopposed to the Chair of Botany at Cambridge when that position fell vacant. Henslow
supported ‘evolutionary’ theories, although retaining a strong religious faith.
18/12/1829, Jean Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet Lamarck,
French scientist, died aged 75. He believed that extra usage of some feature of an animal strengthened it,
and this enhancement could be passed down the generations.
1824, English physician Peter Mark
Roger discovered that the human eye can retain an image for a fraction of a second
after it has seen it. This became the basis for converting a rapid
series of still images into an apparently animated film which the brain sees as
continuous motion.
22/7/1822, Gregor Mendel, Austrian monk and botanist who
discovered the principles of modern genetics, was born at Heinzendorf near Odrau, in
Austrian Silesia.
16/2/1822. Francis Galton, a cousin of Charles Darwin,
founder of a new science called eugenics,
was born in Birmingham, England. Among his ideas was the systematic creation of
a superior race of human beings, an idea later adopted by Hitler.
1819, Naturalist Henri Braconnot,
born in Commercy, France, on 29/5/1781, obtained glucose from sawdust, linen
and bark. This proved that plant materials such as cellulose were made up from
this sugar.
1817, Chlorophyll was discovered by Pierre Pelletier (born in Paris
22/3/178, and Joseph Benaime Caventou (born St Omer, 30/6/1795).
5/3/1815, Friedrich Mesmer, German doctor who developed
the theory of animal
magnetism, or mesmerism, for curing diseases, died aged 80.
12/2/1809, Charles Darwin was born. His father, Robert Darwin, was a doctor and
financier, and his mother, Susannah Darwin, was the daughter of pottery
magnate Josiah Wedgewood.
4/12/1798. Luigi Galvani, Italian scientist who researched animal electricity,
died.
24/7/1794, Russian zoologist Christian Pander was born in
Riga. He studied the development of the chick embryo.
2/2/1793, William Aiton, Scottish botanist, born 1731,
died.
1779, Lazzaro
Spallanzani studied animal reproduction, proving that for
fertiulisation to take place the sperm must make physical contact with the egg,
1779, Jan Ingenhousz,
in Experiments on vegetables,
concluded that sunlight is essential for production of oxygen by leaves. He
discovered two separate respiratory cycles in plants; in the day, carbon
disoxide is absorbed and oxygen released; at night the process reverses. The
exact nature of the gases involved was clear with Lavoisier’s discoveries.
4/2/1778, Augustin
Candolle, Swiss botanist (died 9/9/1841) was born.
10/1/1778, Carl Linnaeus, the Swedish
botanist who devised the modern
system of naming and classifying plants, died in Uppsala.
17/8/1771. The Birmingham scientist Joseph Priestley discovered that oxygen is released from growing plants.
14/9/1769, Birth of Baron von Humboldt, German scientist who explored
Central and South America, and founded the science of ecology.
1761, The first vetinary school
opened, in Lyons, France.
9/9/1737, Luigi Galvani, Italian scientist
and anatomist, was born in Bologna.
1736, Linnaeus classified the plant species.
23/5/1734, Franz Anton Mesmer, Austrian
doctor and founder of Mesmerism, was
born near Constance. He was the son of a gamekeeper.
23/5/1707, Carl Linnaeus, Swedish botanist who established principles for
classifying living organisms, was born as Carl Linne, the son of the
parish clergyman of Rashult.
17/9/1683, The Dutch
scientist Antonie
van Leeuwenhoek wrote to the Royal Society to report his discovery
of bacteria.
See also Medical.
1648, Jan Baptista von Hellmont proved by
experimentation that the increase in weight of a growing willow tree did not
come from the soil in which it was planted. This result was published after his
death in Ortus Medicinae (‘On the
development of medicine’).
22/11/1635,
Naturalist Francis
Willoughby was born in Middleton, England. His systematic work on
birds and fish helped pave the way for Linnaeus’ classification.
345 BCE, Aristotle produced the first
animal classification system, dividing some 500 known species into 8 classes.