Tag: history of biology
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Matthias Schleiden Biography: From Courtroom to Cell
On a winter evening in the late 1830s, a disillusioned lawyer turned botanist peered down a microscope in a German laboratory and saw something that would change biology forever. This is the heart of the Matthias Schleiden biography: a story of failure and reinvention that led a troubled Hamburg attorney to become one of the…
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Theodor Schwann biography: The Quiet Architect of Cell Theory
In most school textbooks, cell theory is summed up in a few bullet points. All living things are made of cells; cells are the basic units of life. Tucked behind those neat statements is a very human story, and at its centre stands a quiet German physiologist. Theodor Schwann spent long, lonely hours at a…
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Charles Darwin Biography: Life, Ideas and Legacy
On a chilly morning in rural Kent, an ageing gentleman in a crumpled hat walked slow circles along a gravel path he called his “Sandwalk”. From a distance he looked like any other Victorian country squire out for exercise. Yet the story behind that walk, and behind this Charles Darwin biography, is the story of…