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(Posted August 15, 1997 ? Issue 14; archived September 5, 1997)
Why not make your fun summer reading about the history of bioscience? Many Web resources discuss the history of modern biology and medicine. You can start with medicine in the ancient world and work your way up to the discovery of DNA and the development of biotechnology.
The Asclepion at Indiana University is a wonderful introduction to the practice of ancient medicine. The Web site describes health and medicine in the civilizations of Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Greece. Discussions include "Medicine in Homer," "Thucydides and the Plague," and "Ancient Drugs." The Asclepion presents a picture gallery of Greek and Roman surgical instruments and a collection of links to other ancient-world Web sites.
Antiqua Medicina: From Homer to Vesalius is an online exhibition at the University of Virginia. This site spans the history of medicine from ancient Greece through Galen in the second century to the Renaissance's Vesalius. Descriptive pictures from the exhibition are scattered throughout the text. Topics in Antiqua Medicina include ancient gynecology, Byzantine medicine, and case studies. To find hypertext translations of the works of Hippocrates and Galen, go to the Ancient Medicine/Medicina Antiqua Web site at The Episcopal Academy.
Several online exhibitions address medical issues from the Renaissance to the present at the History of Medicine Division of the U.S. National Library of Medicine. "Paracelsus, Five Hundred Years" describes how Paracelsus refuted Galen's hypotheses. "Islamic Culture and the Medical Arts" discusses medieval to early modern medicine. And "Cesarean Section: A Brief History" describes birthing methods from antiquity to the twentieth century. In addition, "Images from the History of Medicine" contains approximately 60,000 images from the print and photograph collections of the library. The image database is searchable by subject, title, and author.
The invention of the microscope led to discoveries that revolutionized medicine and paved the way for modern cell biology. The History of the Light Microscope by Thomas E. Jones at the Scientific and Medical Antiques site discusses the early development of the microscope in great detail. Chapters include "Early History of the Lens," "The First Compound Microscope," and "The Microscopes of the 19th Century." Many historical images are scattered throughout the text.
An excellent biography of Antony van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723), the first man who visualized bacteria, sperm cells, and blood cells and made over 500 microscopes is available at the University of California at Berkeley's Web site. The Online Microscopes exhibit at the Moody Medical Library in Texas has images and descriptions of their extensive microscope collection, which contains instruments dating from the 1760s to the 1920s.
The Microscopes and Microscopy Web site developed by Chris Jefferies at the Long Ashton Research Station features an article entitled "A Brief History of Microscopy." This article documents twentieth-century developments including phase-contrast and electron microscopy. Journey into the Cell at The Rockefeller University describes some of the electron-microscope discoveries that led to descriptions of subcellular structures.
To investigate the history of natural science and evolution biology, start at the Enter Evolution: Theory and History site at the Museum of Paleontology at the University of California at Berkeley. The Web site explores the topic of evolution by using biographies of great naturalists and evolution theorists. Subjects include Leonardo da Vinci, Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, Thomas Henry Huxley, and many others. Biographical references are listed for each subject. The Enter Evolution site also includes discussions of "Systematics: The Study of Phylogeny and Classification" and "Dinosaur Discoveries: Findings and Early Interpretations."
The Darwin and Evolution Overview at The Victorian Web at Brown University includes discussions of the contributions of Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace to the theory of evolution. "Darwin and the Removal of Design" explores how the theory of natural selection challenged the prevailing Christian beliefs. The Victorian Web also contains a handy "Darwin and Evolution Timeline." An excellent biography of Charles Darwin is available at the Heroes Homepage.
Several Web sites present the original texts of classic evolution publications. These include: The Voyage of the Beagle (1845), The Origin of Species (1859) and The Descent of Man (1871) by Charles Darwin, and On the Law Which Has Regulated the Introduction of New Species (1855) and On the Tendency of Varieties to Depart Indefinitely from the Original Type (1858) by Alfred Russel Wallace.
Many rich Internet resources document the history of genetics and the discoveries that led to modern molecular biology. The MendelWeb site is designed around Gregor Mendel's 1865 paper "Experiments in Plant Hybridization" and contains an in-depth discussion of Mendel and his work. The "Essays and Commentary" section includes both original and reprinted articles, and the "MendelWeb Timeline" charts events that occurred during the lifetime of Mendel. You can visit the "Mendelroom" if you wish to discuss Mendel's work or the MendelWeb resource. MendelWeb also contains both German and English versions of Mendel's paper.
The discovery of chromosomes and DNA is described in the MIT Biology Hypertextbook's The Search for the Genetic Material and The Search Narrows (contributed by Access Excellence). The Stetten Museum at NIH has a wonderful online exhibit on the research of Dr. Marshall Nirenberg called Breaking the Genetic Code. The presentation discusses the role of Dr. Nirenberg and other scientists in the discovery of the code.
Genentech's Access Excellence presents a dramatic timeline that chronicles the discovery of DNA and recombinant DNA technology: 1900-1953: Converging on DNA and 1953-1976: Expanding the Boundaries of DNA Research. Original references for many of the genetics discoveries are online at another site, Classic Papers in Genetics. A copy of James Watson and Francis Crick's paper "A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid" (1953) can be found at Nature Japan.
The development of recombinant DNA technology led to genetic engineering and biotechnology in the modern era. The Biotech Chronicles at Access Excellence describe the use of biotechnology throughout history and up to the present. Where Did Biotechnology Begin? discusses the history of biotechnology, including crop improvement and the use of microbes to produce useful substances. The "Overview and Brief History" describes the use of biotechnology in the twentieth century. The Web site includes a biotech timeline, "1977-Present: The Dawn of Biotech" and features profiles of pioneers in biotechnology. The North Carolina Biotechnology Center Web site also presents an excellent Historical Timeline of Biotechnology.
There are many Web sites devoted to the biographies of famous scientists and biologists. The Nobel Prize Internet Archive features biographies of Nobel Prize winners in physiology or medicine from 1901 to 1996. Nineteenth- and twentieth-century biologists are profiled in the Biographical Dictionary of Biologists. Several resources are devoted solely to women in science. The Distinguished Women of Past and Present site includes biographies in the fields of biology, health, and medicine. Additional women's profiles are presented at the Women in Developmental Biology site and the Women of Science at the MBL (Marine Biological Laboratory) exhibit. So if you are interested in brushing up on a little biology history, try looking on the World Wide Web. Whether your interest is in medieval medicine, evolution theory, or recombinant DNA technology, there are many Internet resources available.
Pamela M. Gannon, Ph.D., is the founder and Webmaster of Cell and Molecular Biology Online.
Endlinks
Web sites mentioned in this column:
MendelWeb is featured in this issue's Beagle Review.
History of Biomedicine - this
Web site at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, has the
most comprehensive collection of links about the history of biology and
medicine. The World-Wide
Web Virtual Library: History of Science, Technology and
Medicine - a searchable index of links in different fields including biology, medicine, and health. Syllabus of the History of Medicine by Clifford C. Snyder,
M.D., at The Virtual Hospital describes medicine from prehistoric man to
the mid-twentieth century and includes many biographies. A
Beginner's Guide to Research in the History of Science - a gigantic
bibliography of science history resources organized around scientific
revolutions. HMS Beagle has featured several articles about Charles Darwin and his
work:
Outstanding Papers in Biology documents discoveries that changed
the course of modern biology.
Readers of HMS Beagle can obtain a free copy.