Famous People in Biology for the CSET Part 2

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Excerpt from the CSET Study Guide

This is part 2 in our series of articles on famous biologists for teacher candidates studying for the CSET Multiple Subjects exam.

Alexander Fleming

Fleming became interested in the natural bacterial action of the blood and in antiseptics. He was able to continue his studies throughout his military career and on demobilization he settled to work on antibacterial substances which would not be toxic to animal tissues. In 1921, he discovered in tissues and secretions an important bacteriolytic substance which he named Lysozyme. About this time, he devised sensitivity titration methods and assays in human blood and other body fluids, which he subsequently used for the titration of penicillin. In 1928, while working on influenza virus, he observed that mould had developed accidently on a staphylococcus culture plate and that the mould had created a bacteria-free circle around itself. He was inspired to further experiment and he found that a mould culture prevented growth of staphylococci, even when diluted 800 times. He named the active substance penicillin.

Robert Koch

In 1870 Koch demonstrated that Bacillus anthrax spores cause the infection in mice. He was the first to isolate the bacteria that cause disease. In addition to his work with anthrax, he also studied tuberculosis. He isolated the bacillus that causes tuberculosis in 1881. During the remainder of his career, Koch studied tuberculosis and cholera. He found that cholera was transmitted from one person to another through contaminated water. Late in his career he also studied diseases caused by insect vectors. For his contributions to the germ theory of disease, Koch is often thought of as being the “father of bacteriology”.

Hans Adolf Krebs

Biochemist who received (with Fritz Lipmann) the 1953 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for the discovery in living organisms of the series of chemical reactions known as the tricarboxylic acid cycle (also called the citric acid cycle, or Krebs cycle). These reactions involve the conversion–in the presence of oxygen–of substances that are formed by the breakdown of sugars, fats, and protein components to carbon dioxide, water, and energy-rich compounds.

Gregor Mendel

In a monastery garden Mendel began (1856) the breeding experiments that led him to discover the laws of heredity. Working with garden peas, he studied seven characteristics that occur in alternative forms: plant height (tallness vs. shortness), seed color (green vs. yellow), seed shape (smooth vs. wrinkled), seed-coat color (colored vs. white), pod shape (inflated vs. wrinkled), pod color (green vs. yellow), flower distribution (along length vs. at end of stem), seed coat color (gray vs. white), and pod shape (full vs. constricted). Mendel made hundreds of crosses by means of artificial pollination. He kept careful records of the plants that were crossed and of the offspring.

Mendel summarized his findings in three theories. He stated that during the formation of the sex cells–the egg and the sperm–paired factors segregated, or separated. A sperm or egg may contain either a tallness factor or a shortness factor, not both. This theory is called Mendel’s first law, or the principle of segregation.

Mendel’s second law, called the principle of independent assortment, stated that characteristics are inherited independently of each other, the tallness factor may be inherited with any other factor, dominant or recessive.

The third theory stated that each inherited characteristic is determined by the interaction of two hereditary factors (now called genes), one from each parent. In the characteristics that he studied, Mendel found that one factor of the pair always predominated; for example, tallness always was dominant over shortness. This theory is known as the law of dominance.

Screen Shot of Exercise from the CSET Study Guide

A biologist was interested in studying how far bullfrogs can jump. He brought a bullfrog into his laboratory, set it down, and commanded, “Jump, frog, jump!”
The frog jumped across the room.
The biologist measured the distance, then noted in his journal, “Frog with four legs jumped eight feet.”

Then he cut the frog’s front legs off. Again he ordered, “Jump, frog, jump!”
The frog struggled a moment, then jumped a few feet.
After measuring the distance, the biologist noted in his journal, “Frog with two legs jumped three feet.”

Next, the biologist cut off the frog’s back legs. Once more, he shouted, “Jump, frog, jump!”
The frog just lay there.
“Jump, frog, jump!” the biologist repeated.
Nothing.
The biologist noted in his journal, “Frog with no legs – lost its hearing.”

By Todd Brackett

http://www.ACEtheCSET.com

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