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Carl Linneaus
Linneaus was a famed Swedish botanist, zoologist, and physician. He laid the foundations for the modern naming of animals with his process of binomial nomenclature. -
James Hutton
Geologist who examined rock layers with regard to the orgins of species. Hutton developed the theory of uniformitarianism which says that the Earth's crust has been builtup of many layers over time. -
Jean Baptise Lamarck
A naturalist who came up with two biological thoeries in support of evolution. The first was that the nature changes organisms based on conditons, and the second that as more generations of organism come to be they become more complex. -
Georges Cuvier
A famed French naturalist amd paleontologist Cuvier was vital min establishing the fields of comparitive anatomy and paleontology. His book Essay on the Theory of the Earth said that animal species were altered after a catastophic event that led to the animals seen today. This is called the theory of catastrophism. -
Mendel's Theory of Genetics
Gregor Mendel an Austrian monk attmpted to find the reason for variations in physical traits in pea plants. He mated pea plants in a controlled enviromment and concluded that traits are controlled by genes. -
Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin a ecologist took a voyage to the Galapagos and observed similarities between organisms on different islands and how different organisms excelled in certain habitats. This led to his publication of the book Orgin of Species. In this he said that all organisms descended from a common ancestor and hoe natural selection worked to change organisms. -
Insulin
Diabeties is a disease in which the human body has a insulin deficency. Despite being a recognized disease for almos 3500 years insulin was never known to be the cause. It was not until 1921 that a purified form of insulin was created from pigs. It was not until 1978 that insulin was was made purely by biotechnolgy. -
Charles Lyell
Foremost geologist of his day and close friend of Charles Darwin wrote the book Principles of Geology. This book popularized the theory of uniformitarianism in favor of the theory of evolution. -
Avery-Macleod-McCarty
In an experiment the scientists attempted to find which component of the cell carried genetic material. Before the experiment it was believed that all genetic material was carried by proteins. This experiment proved, by injecting rats with both a dead virulent strain of a bacteria and a living non virulent strain of bacteria, that nucleic acids carried genetic material because after a while the rats developed a virus because of replication. -
Maurice Wilkins
Wilkins was able to create the first clear pictures of DNA using X-ray. He then "borrowed" Rosalind Frank's work in order to cross reference it with his. -
Rosalind Franklin
Franklin was an english chemist and X-ray crystallographer who made vital discoveries about the structure of DNA and RNA. Since she was awomen she was not credited with her discoveries until after her death. -
Hershey-Chase experiment
The purpose of this experiment was to prove that DNA was the genetic material within a cell. In order to do this they injected the protein coat of one phage and the nucleaus of another with radioactive material. They found as expected the bacteria injected by the phage with radiactive materail in the nucleaus offspring had radioactive material. -
Watson and Crick
Watson and Crick were the first two men to accuratley describe the structure of DNA. They were the first two men to say DNA was a double helix with a phoshphate backbone and four nitrogenous bases. They were also the first to theorize that the nitrogenous bases have a pair. -
Genetic Engineering
Genetic engineering is the direct manipulation of an organisms genome using biotechnolgy. In 1972 Paul Berg became the first known scientist to create the worlds first recombiant DNA molecule, or genetically modified molecule. -
Plasmid Based Transformation
Annie Chang and Leslie Hsu showed how a CaCl solution is effective in order to create a transformation of plasmid DNA. Transformation in the process by which a cell is genetically altered through the uptake of exogenous genetic material. -
GMO
Stanley Cohen and Herbert Boyer are successful in crating the worlds first recombiant gene by inserting viral DNA into bacterial DNA. This made the concept of GMO's possible because it showed that one organism could suceessfully serve as a carrier for genes of another organism. -
Restriction Enzyme Analysis
Restriction enzyme analysis is the technique of using restriction enzymes in order to gentically modify organisms. The restriction enzyme was discoverd accidentally in 1950 but was not used in order to modify organisms until 1970. -
Transgenic Animals
A transgenic animal is an animal which has had and exogenous gene, or transgene into a living organism.This was commonly used in rats in order to cure diseases then began to move to larger mammals in order to improve them. Transgenesis can be facilitated through many different methods. -
Stem Cells
Stem cells have the remarkable potential to develop into many different cell types in the body during early life and growth. This leads to amny remarkable capabilities for stem cells such as the ability to regenerate. This remarkable capabilities were discovered while experimenting with mouse embryos and eventually people in 1998. -
Polymerase Chain Reaaction
Technique developed by Karl Mullis in 1983. The goal of PCR is to amplify or several copies of DNA across several orders of magnitude. This results in thousands to millions of copies of a DNA sequence. -
GMO's Tomatoes
The first field test involving genetically modified tomatoes are conducted. The test is suceesful in creating a genetically modified tomato. Despite the success the tomato is not used due to diapproving attitudes from consumers. -
Human Genome Project
This project originally set out to map the nuleotides contained in the human haploid reference genome. It eventually led to the determining of chemical base pairs which make up human DNA. It also led to the identifying and mapping of all the genes along the human genome from both a physical and functional standpoint. -
Gel Electrphoresis
Method that seperates macromolecules and their fragments by their size and charge. Despite similar methods being used before for the same goal in 2001 the test results could be verified due to the standardizing of time for a PAGE that would better seperate the proteins.
