As I was continuing to (inefficiently) get ready this past week for the start of classes on Monday, I was adding some historical perspective to the developmental biology course I am teaching. The textbook mentions scientist names and the general time in which they made discoveries or proposed ideas about how biological systems work. I started looking up more specific information about these scientists though, and started thinking about how crazy it is that so many discoveries we/I take for granted were made relatively recently. At least it seemed that way to me when I started thinking about how the lives of my great-grandparents (who I knew), my grandparents, and my parents (sorry) overlapped with so many incredible advances. Of course I also thought about how in 30 years students will take for granted exciting discoveries that have been made in the past 10 years, and wonder how there was a time we did not know these things.
[As an aside, I think this is one of the struggles with teaching science. We know SO. MUCH. MORE. now than we did when I was in school in the 80s and 90s. We expect the students to learn these new things, but then we still need to teach them the basics and how to think. There actually are not enough hours in the day. A lot of our teaching, at least where I am, does emphasize the critical thinking and communication/writing skills, but in reality the students are not retaining even a lot of the basics as a result. And they need to at least know the basics and where to look up the more detailed information.]
My great-grandmother was born in 1898, and I think my great-grandfather was born earlier that decade. My grandparents were born in the mid-1920s. So, here are some cool things to think about.
The man, August Weismann, who proposed that we inherit characteristics from germ cells (eggs and sperm) died when my great grandmother was 16 years old.
The images of DNA taken by Rosalind Franklin, that were then used by her and Watson and Crick to determine the structure of DNA, were taken in the early 1950s when my great grand-parents were in their 60s, my grand-parents in their late 20s, and my parents were born?! As an aside, Franklin also studied the polio virus.
The 4 postulates for determining if an illness is due to a disease or a microorganism (like bacteria) were developed around 1890, and have since been revised in light of more modern techniques of studying disease. Koch and Loeffler, who developed these ideas, lived until 1910 and 1915, respectively, when my great-grandmother was a teenager.
I would look up a few more, but you get the idea. Everyone hears about the big exciting things like landing on the moon, but these ideas are just as ground breaking, even if they seem less flashy in this day and age.
3 comments:
I agree. It seems like history becomes ancient history way to quickly. I remember doing genealogy research on my 2nd great grandfather and running across birth records of a slave.... ummm... I was like slavery was ancient history it's not possible that my 2nd great grandfather could have lived in a time where slavery was acceptable.
I know, right, Ron! I remember watching Lincoln in the theater and thinking that it wasn't actually that long ago that the Civil War happened (in the grand scheme of things).
Yeah, the pace of knowledge is galloping along. I can't recall when exactly it hit me that much of what I'd learned in school was now out of date, but I wasn't disappointed. It's great to have so much new information to explore all the time, if you're a curious person like I am.
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