Karl Wilhelm von Nägeli (March 27, 1817 – May 11, 1891) was a Swiss
botanistBotany, plant science, phytology, or plant biology is a branch of biology and is the scientific study of plant life and development...
. He discovered what would later become known as
chromosomeA chromosome is an organized structure of DNA and protein that is found in cells. It is a single piece of coiled DNA containing many genes, regulatory elements and other nucleotide sequences. Chromosomes also contain DNA-bound proteins, which serve to package the DNA and control its functions...
s and apparently discouraged
Gregor MendelGregor Johann Mendel was an Augustinian priest and scientist, and is often called the father of genetics for his study of the inheritance of certain traits in pea plants. Mendel showed that the inheritance of these traits follows particular laws, which were later named after him...
from further work on genetics.
Nägeli was born in
KilchbergKilchberg is a municipality in the district of Horgen in the canton of Zürich in Switzerland.Its coat of arms features a sky-blue shield with a trillium.Kilchberg is also the site of a regional cemetery.-History:...
near
ZurichZürich or Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zürich. The city is Switzerland's main commercial and cultural centre and sometimes called the Cultural Capital of Switzerland, the political capital of Switzerland being Berne...
, where he studied medicine at the
University of ZurichThe University of Zurich , located in the city of Zurich, is the largest university in Switzerland, with over 24,000 students. It was founded in 1833 from the existing colleges of theology, law, medicine and a new faculty of philosophy...
. From 1839, he studied botany under
A. P. de CandolleAugustin Pyramus de Candolle also spelt Augustin Pyrame de Candolle was a botanist. The author abbreviation used in citing plant names he published is "DC."....
at
GenevaThe University of Geneva is a university in Geneva, Switzerland.Founded by John Calvin in 1559 as a theological seminary that also taught law, it remained focused on theology until the 17th century, when it became a center for Enlightenment scholarship. In 1873 it dropped its religious...
, and graduated with a botanical thesis at Zurich in 1840. His attention having been directed by
Matthias Jakob SchleidenMatthias Jakob Schleiden was a German botanist and co-founder of the cell theory, along with Theodor Schwann and Rudolf Virchow....
, then professor of botany at
JenaJena is a university city in central Germany on the river Saale. With a population of 103,000 it is the second largest city in the federal state of Thuringia, after Erfurt.-History:Jena was first mentioned in an 1182 document...
, to the microscopical study of
plantPlants are living organisms belonging to the kingdom Plantae. They include familiar organisms such as trees, herbs, bushes, grasses, vines, ferns, mosses, and green algae. The scientific study of plants, known as botany, has identified about 350,000 extant species of plants, defined as seed plants,...
s, he engaged more particularly in that branch of research.
Soon after graduation he became
PrivatdozentPrivate docent is a title conferred in some European university systems, especially in German-speaking countries, for someone who pursues an academic career and holds all formal qualifications to become a tenured university professor.-Becoming:Privatedocentship is conferred to academics who have...
and subsequently professor extraordinary, in the
University of ZurichThe University of Zurich , located in the city of Zurich, is the largest university in Switzerland, with over 24,000 students. It was founded in 1833 from the existing colleges of theology, law, medicine and a new faculty of philosophy...
; in 1852 he was called to fill the chair of botany at the
University of FreiburgThe University of Freiburg , sometimes referred to in English as the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg, is a public research university located in Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.The university was founded in 1457 by the Hapsburg dynasty as the second university in...
; and in 1857 he was promoted to Munich, where he remained as professor until his death.
Karl Nägeli is best known among Cell Biologists because he first observed cell division during the formation of pollen, in 1842 (See Sedgwick's
A Short History of Science.http://books.google.com/books?id=qvycs9jqNEQC&pg=PA429&lpg=PA429&dq=karl+nageli&source=bl&ots=3NTGq7Qbg-&sig=pcJvoF3ptG2YI31DGxetEi6iKNc&hl=en&ei=hMq4StaRNo3ilAeuiLTZDg&sa=X&oi=book result&ct=result&resnum=10#v=onepage&q=karl%20nageli&f=false Among his other contributions to science were a series of papers in the
Zeitschrift fur wissenschaftliche Botanik
(1844 1846); Die neueren Algensysteme
(1847); Gattungen einzelliger Algen
(1849); Pflanzenphysiologische Untersuchungen
(1855 1858), with Carl Eduard CramerCarl Eduard Cramer was a Swiss botanist who was born in Zurich.He studied at Zurich and Freiburg, where he received his doctorate in 1855. As a young man his mentor was the famed botanist Karl Wilhelm von Nägeli...
; Beiträge zur wissenschaftlichen Botanik
(1858-1868); a number of papers contributed to the Royal Bavarian Academy of Sciences, forming three volumes of Botanische Mitteilungen
(1861-1881); and, finally, his volume, Mechanisch-physiologische Theorie der Abstammungslehre
, published in 1884.
Discussion
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Karl Wilhelm von Nägeli (March 27, 1817 – May 11, 1891) was a Swiss
botanistBotany, plant science, phytology, or plant biology is a branch of biology and is the scientific study of plant life and development...
. He discovered what would later become known as
chromosomeA chromosome is an organized structure of DNA and protein that is found in cells. It is a single piece of coiled DNA containing many genes, regulatory elements and other nucleotide sequences. Chromosomes also contain DNA-bound proteins, which serve to package the DNA and control its functions...
s and apparently discouraged
Gregor MendelGregor Johann Mendel was an Augustinian priest and scientist, and is often called the father of genetics for his study of the inheritance of certain traits in pea plants. Mendel showed that the inheritance of these traits follows particular laws, which were later named after him...
from further work on genetics.
Birth and education
Nägeli was born in
KilchbergKilchberg is a municipality in the district of Horgen in the canton of Zürich in Switzerland.Its coat of arms features a sky-blue shield with a trillium.Kilchberg is also the site of a regional cemetery.-History:...
near
ZurichZürich or Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zürich. The city is Switzerland's main commercial and cultural centre and sometimes called the Cultural Capital of Switzerland, the political capital of Switzerland being Berne...
, where he studied medicine at the
University of ZurichThe University of Zurich , located in the city of Zurich, is the largest university in Switzerland, with over 24,000 students. It was founded in 1833 from the existing colleges of theology, law, medicine and a new faculty of philosophy...
. From 1839, he studied botany under
A. P. de CandolleAugustin Pyramus de Candolle also spelt Augustin Pyrame de Candolle was a botanist. The author abbreviation used in citing plant names he published is "DC."....
at
GenevaThe University of Geneva is a university in Geneva, Switzerland.Founded by John Calvin in 1559 as a theological seminary that also taught law, it remained focused on theology until the 17th century, when it became a center for Enlightenment scholarship. In 1873 it dropped its religious...
, and graduated with a botanical thesis at Zurich in 1840. His attention having been directed by
Matthias Jakob SchleidenMatthias Jakob Schleiden was a German botanist and co-founder of the cell theory, along with Theodor Schwann and Rudolf Virchow....
, then professor of botany at
JenaJena is a university city in central Germany on the river Saale. With a population of 103,000 it is the second largest city in the federal state of Thuringia, after Erfurt.-History:Jena was first mentioned in an 1182 document...
, to the microscopical study of
plantPlants are living organisms belonging to the kingdom Plantae. They include familiar organisms such as trees, herbs, bushes, grasses, vines, ferns, mosses, and green algae. The scientific study of plants, known as botany, has identified about 350,000 extant species of plants, defined as seed plants,...
s, he engaged more particularly in that branch of research.
Academic career
Soon after graduation he became
PrivatdozentPrivate docent is a title conferred in some European university systems, especially in German-speaking countries, for someone who pursues an academic career and holds all formal qualifications to become a tenured university professor.-Becoming:Privatedocentship is conferred to academics who have...
and subsequently professor extraordinary, in the
University of ZurichThe University of Zurich , located in the city of Zurich, is the largest university in Switzerland, with over 24,000 students. It was founded in 1833 from the existing colleges of theology, law, medicine and a new faculty of philosophy...
; in 1852 he was called to fill the chair of botany at the
University of FreiburgThe University of Freiburg , sometimes referred to in English as the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg, is a public research university located in Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.The university was founded in 1457 by the Hapsburg dynasty as the second university in...
; and in 1857 he was promoted to Munich, where he remained as professor until his death.
Contributions
Karl Nägeli is best known among Cell Biologists because he first observed cell division during the formation of pollen, in 1842 (See Sedgwick's
A Short History of Science.http://books.google.com/books?id=qvycs9jqNEQC&pg=PA429&lpg=PA429&dq=karl+nageli&source=bl&ots=3NTGq7Qbg-&sig=pcJvoF3ptG2YI31DGxetEi6iKNc&hl=en&ei=hMq4StaRNo3ilAeuiLTZDg&sa=X&oi=book result&ct=result&resnum=10#v=onepage&q=karl%20nageli&f=false Among his other contributions to science were a series of papers in the
Zeitschrift fur wissenschaftliche Botanik
(1844 1846); Die neueren Algensysteme
(1847); Gattungen einzelliger Algen
(1849); Pflanzenphysiologische Untersuchungen
(1855 1858), with Carl Eduard CramerCarl Eduard Cramer was a Swiss botanist who was born in Zurich.He studied at Zurich and Freiburg, where he received his doctorate in 1855. As a young man his mentor was the famed botanist Karl Wilhelm von Nägeli...
; Beiträge zur wissenschaftlichen Botanik
(1858-1868); a number of papers contributed to the Royal Bavarian Academy of Sciences, forming three volumes of Botanische Mitteilungen
(1861-1881); and, finally, his volume, Mechanisch-physiologische Theorie der Abstammungslehre
, published in 1884. However, perhaps Nägeli is best known nowadays for his unproductive correspondence (1866-1873) with Gregor MendelGregor Johann Mendel was an Augustinian priest and scientist, and is often called the father of genetics for his study of the inheritance of certain traits in pea plants. Mendel showed that the inheritance of these traits follows particular laws, which were later named after him...
concerning the latter's celebrated work on Pisum sativum
, the garden pea.
The writer Simon Mawer, in his book "Gregor Mendel: Planting the seeds of genetics" (2006), gives us an interesting and detailed account of Nägeli's correspondence with Mendel. Mawer underlines that, at the time Nägeli was writing to the friar from Moravia, Nägeli "must have been preparing his great work entitled A Mechanico-Physiological Theory of Organic Evolution (published in 1884, the year of Mendel's death) in which he proposes the concept of the "idioplasm" as the hypothetical transmitter of inherited characters."
Simon Mawer notes that, in this Nägeli's book, there is not a single mention of the work of Gregor Mendel. And that is why he writes the following, and quite moving, paragraph: "We can forgive von Nägeli for being obtuse and supercilious. We can forgive him for being ignorant, a scientist of his time who did not really have the equipment to understand the significance of what Mendel had done despite the fact that he (von Nägeli) speculated extensively about inheritance. But omitting an account of Mendel's work from his book is, perhaps, unforgivable." (Mawer, 2006, p. 81)
External links
- Biography and work (in German)
- Short biography and bibliography in the Virtual Laboratory
The online project Virtual Laboratory. Essays and Resources on the Experimentalization of Life, 1830-1930, located at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, is dedicated to research in the history of the experimentalization of life...
of the Max Planck Institute for the History of ScienceThe Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin was established in March 1994. Its research is primarily devoted to a theoretically oriented history of science, principally of the natural sciences, but with methodological perspectives drawn from the cognitive sciences and from...