Jacques Loeb (born April 7, 1859, in
MayenMayen is a town in the Mayen-Koblenz District of the Rhineland-Palatinate Federal State of Germany, in the eastern part of the Volcanic Eifel Region. As well as the main town, there are five further settlements which are part of Mayen, they are: Alzheim, Kürrenberg, Hausen-Betzing, Hausen and Nitztal...
,
Rhineland-PalatinateRhineland-Palatinate is one of the 16 federal states of Germany. It has an area of and about four million inhabitants. The capital is Mainz. English speakers also commonly refer to the state by its German name, Rheinland-Pfalz....
; died February 11, 1924, in
HamiltonHamilton is the capital of Bermuda. It is located on the north side of Hamilton Harbour, and is Bermuda's main port. Although there is a parish of the same name, the city of Hamilton is in the parish of Pembroke. The City is named after Sir Henry Hamilton, governor from 1778 to 1794...
,
BermudaBermuda is a British overseas territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. Located off the east coast of the United States, it is situated around 1,770 kilometres northeast of Miami, Florida, and 1,350 kilometres south of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada...
) was a
GermanGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
-born American physiologist and
biologistA biologist is a scientist devoted to and producing results in biology through the study of life.Typically biologists study organisms and their relationship to their environment. Biologists involved in basic research attempt to discover underlying mechanisms that govern how organisms work...
.
Loeb was educated at the universities of
BerlinBerlin is the capital city and one of sixteen states of Germany. With a population of 3.4 million within its city limits, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city and the eighth most populous urban area in the European Union...
,
MunichMunich is the capital city of Bavaria, Germany. It is located on the River Isar north of the Bavarian Alps. Munich is the third largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Hamburg...
, and
Strasburg-Places:*Strasbourg , Alsace *Straßburg, Austria, in Carinthia*Strasburg, Germany, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania*the former name of Brodnica, since 1945 Poland*Strassburg, the German name for Aiud, Alba United States...
(M.D. 1884). He took postgraduate courses at the universities of
Strasburg-Places:*Strasbourg , Alsace *Straßburg, Austria, in Carinthia*Strasburg, Germany, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania*the former name of Brodnica, since 1945 Poland*Strassburg, the German name for Aiud, Alba United States...
and
BerlinBerlin is the capital city and one of sixteen states of Germany. With a population of 3.4 million within its city limits, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city and the eighth most populous urban area in the European Union...
, and in 1886 became assistant at the physiological institute of the
University of WürzburgThe University of Würzburg is a university in Würzburg, Germany, founded in 1402. The university is a member of the Coimbra Group.-Name:The University’s official name is Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg which translates to Julius Maximilian University Würzburg but it is commonly referred to...
, remaining there till 1888. In a similar capacity, he then went to Strasburg University.
Jacques Loeb (born April 7, 1859, in
MayenMayen is a town in the Mayen-Koblenz District of the Rhineland-Palatinate Federal State of Germany, in the eastern part of the Volcanic Eifel Region. As well as the main town, there are five further settlements which are part of Mayen, they are: Alzheim, Kürrenberg, Hausen-Betzing, Hausen and Nitztal...
,
Rhineland-PalatinateRhineland-Palatinate is one of the 16 federal states of Germany. It has an area of and about four million inhabitants. The capital is Mainz. English speakers also commonly refer to the state by its German name, Rheinland-Pfalz....
; died February 11, 1924, in
HamiltonHamilton is the capital of Bermuda. It is located on the north side of Hamilton Harbour, and is Bermuda's main port. Although there is a parish of the same name, the city of Hamilton is in the parish of Pembroke. The City is named after Sir Henry Hamilton, governor from 1778 to 1794...
,
BermudaBermuda is a British overseas territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. Located off the east coast of the United States, it is situated around 1,770 kilometres northeast of Miami, Florida, and 1,350 kilometres south of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada...
) was a
GermanGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
-born American physiologist and
biologistA biologist is a scientist devoted to and producing results in biology through the study of life.Typically biologists study organisms and their relationship to their environment. Biologists involved in basic research attempt to discover underlying mechanisms that govern how organisms work...
.
Biography
Loeb was educated at the universities of
BerlinBerlin is the capital city and one of sixteen states of Germany. With a population of 3.4 million within its city limits, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city and the eighth most populous urban area in the European Union...
,
MunichMunich is the capital city of Bavaria, Germany. It is located on the River Isar north of the Bavarian Alps. Munich is the third largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Hamburg...
, and
Strasburg-Places:*Strasbourg , Alsace *Straßburg, Austria, in Carinthia*Strasburg, Germany, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania*the former name of Brodnica, since 1945 Poland*Strassburg, the German name for Aiud, Alba United States...
(M.D. 1884). He took postgraduate courses at the universities of
Strasburg-Places:*Strasbourg , Alsace *Straßburg, Austria, in Carinthia*Strasburg, Germany, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania*the former name of Brodnica, since 1945 Poland*Strassburg, the German name for Aiud, Alba United States...
and
BerlinBerlin is the capital city and one of sixteen states of Germany. With a population of 3.4 million within its city limits, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city and the eighth most populous urban area in the European Union...
, and in 1886 became assistant at the physiological institute of the
University of WürzburgThe University of Würzburg is a university in Würzburg, Germany, founded in 1402. The university is a member of the Coimbra Group.-Name:The University’s official name is Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg which translates to Julius Maximilian University Würzburg but it is commonly referred to...
, remaining there till 1888. In a similar capacity, he then went to Strasburg University. During his vacations he pursued biological researches, at
KielKiel is the capital and most populous city of the northern German state Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of over 236,000 .Kiel is approximately to the north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the north of Germany, the southeast of the Jutland peninsula, and the southwestern shore...
in 1888, and at
NaplesNaples in Italy, is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples. The city is known for its rich history, art, culture, architecture, music and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,800 years old...
in 1889 and 1890.
In 1892 he was called to the
University of ChicagoThe University of Chicago is a private, coeducational research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by oil magnate and benefactor John D...
as assistant professor of physiology and experimental biology, becoming associate professor in 1895, and professor of physiology in 1899. In 1902 he was called to fill a similar chair at the
University of CaliforniaThe University of California is a public university system in the state of California. Under the California Master Plan for Higher Education, the University of California is a part of the state's three-tier public higher education system, which also includes the California State University system...
.
In 1910 Loeb moved to the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research in New York, where he headed a department created for him. He remained at Rockefeller (now
Rockefeller UniversityThe Rockefeller University is a private university which focuses primarily on basic research in the biomedical fields and offers graduate and postgraduate education. It is located between 63rd and 68th Streets along York Avenue, on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, New York...
) until his death. Throughout most of these years Loeb spent his summers at the
Marine Biological LaboratoryThe Marine Biological Laboratory is an international center for research and education in biology, biomedicine and ecology. Founded in 1888, the MBL is the oldest independent marine laboratory in the Americas, taking advantage of a coastal setting in the Cape Cod village of Woods Hole, Massachusetts...
in
Woods HoleWoods Hole is a census-designated place in the town of Falmouth in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States. It lies at the extreme southwest corner of Cape Cod, near Martha's Vineyard and the Elizabeth Islands...
,
MassachusettsThe Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. Most of its population of...
, performing experiments on various marine invertebrates. It was there that Jacques Loeb performed his most famous experiment, on artificial
parthenogenesisParthenogenesis is an asexual form of reproduction found in females where growth and development of embryos occurs without fertilization by a male. In plants, parthenogenesis means development of an embryo from an unfertilized egg cell, and is a component process of apomixis...
. Loeb was able to cause the eggs of
sea urchinSea urchins or urchins are small, spiny, globular animals that compose part of class Echinoidea. They are found in oceans all over the world. Their shell, or "test", is round and spiny, typically from 3 to 10 cm across. Common colors include black and dull shades of green, olive, brown, purple,...
s to begin embryonic development without sperm. This was achieved by slight chemical modifications of the water in which the eggs were kept, which served as the stimulus for the development to begin.
Loeb became one of the most famous scientists in America, widely covered in newspapers and magazines. He was the model for the character of Max Gottlieb in
Sinclair LewisHarry Sinclair Lewis was an American novelist, short-story writer, and playwright. In 1930, he became the first American to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, "for his vigorous and graphic art of description and his ability to create, with wit and humor, new types of characters." His works...
's
PulitzerThe Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by Hungarian-American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City....
-winning novel
ArrowsmithArrowsmith is a novel by American author and playwright Sinclair Lewis that was published in 1925. It won the 1926 Pulitzer Prize for Lewis but he refused to accept it. Lewis was greatly assisted in its preparation by science writer Dr. Paul de Kruif, who received 25% of the royalties on sales,...
, the first great work of fiction to idealize and idolize pure science.
Loeb was nominated many times for the Nobel Prize but never won.
Research area
The main subjects of Loeb's work were:
- Animal tropism
A tropism is a biological phenomenon, indicating growth or turning movement of a biological organism, usually a plant, in response to an environmental stimulus. In tropisms, this response is dependent on the direction of the stimulus...
s and their relation to the instincts of animals
- Heteromorphosis, the replacement of an injured or removed organ by a different organ
- Toxic and antitoxic effects of ions
- Artificial parthenogenesis
- Hybridization of the eggs of sea-urchins by the sperm of starfish
Works
Among Loeb's works the following may be mentioned:
- Der Heliotropismus der Thiere und seine Uebereinstimmung mit dem Heliotropismus der Pflanzen, Würzburg: Verlag von Georg Hertz, 1890.
- Untersuchungen zur physiologischen Morphologie der Thiere, Würzburg: Verlag von Georg Hertz, 1891–1892. 2 vols., vol. 1: Ueber Heteromorphose, vol. 2: Organbildung und Wachsthum.
- Einleitung in die vergleichende Gehirnphysiologie und vergleichende Psychologie, Leipzig: J. A. Barth, 1899. English ed., Comparative physiology of the brain and comparative psychology, New York: Putnam, 1900.
- Studies in general physiology, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1905.
- The dynamics of living matter, New York: Columbia University Press, 1906.
- The mechanistic conception of life: biological essays, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1912; reprint, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1964.
- Artificial parthenogenesis and fertilization, tr. from German by W. O. Redman King, rev. and ed. by Loeb. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1913.
- The organism as a whole, from a physicochemical viewpoint, New York: Putnam, 1916.
- Forced movements, tropisms, and animal conduct, Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company
J. B. Lippincott & Co. was an American publishing house founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in1836 by Joshua Ballinger Lippincott.From descendants of members of the Religious Society of Friends, Joshua Lippincott's company began selling a line of Bibles, prayer books and other religious works...
, 1918.
- Proteins and the theory of colloidal behavior, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1922.
The Mechanistic Conception of Life is Loeb's most famous and influential work. It contains English translations of some of his previous publications in German.
External links