Genetics and Neuroanatomy Quiz

Scientists Who Changed History

• This book details the lives and discoveries of influential scientists.
• It highlights paradigm shifts in scientific thought between 1895 and 1925.

Milestones in History

• Santiago Ramón y Cajal: A Spanish neuroscientist who won a Nobel Prize for his work on nervous system cells, which showed the cells are not continuously connected as was thought at the time, but rather separate. He also modified the Golgi stain, improving the study of brain tissue.
• Camillo Golgi: A contemporary of Cajal who won a Nobel Prize for his work on nervous system cells. He developed a crucial tissue-staining technique used to visualize nerve cells, though his theory wasn't entirely correct.
• Max Planck: A German physicist whose quantum theory fundamentally changed physics, showing that energy is released in discrete packets, not continuously, as was believed before. This work challenged the classical physics view.
• Nettie Stevens: An early-20th-century American biologist recognized for her discovery that sex is determined by particular chromosomes. She observed differences in chromosome structures between males and females.
• George Washington Carver: An American agricultural scientist who innovated and developed farming methods to improve soil and crop cultivation. He generated commercially viable agricultural products from peanuts and sweet potatoes. He focused on agriculture in southern US.
• Thomas Hunt Morgan: A US geneticist who expanded upon Gregor Mendel's work. His experiments with fruit flies confirmed the role of chromosomes in heredity and established a methodology used in genetics to this day. He also worked extensively on fruit flies, which helped advance understanding of heredity and genetics.
• Marie Curie: A Polish-born French physicist and chemist who pioneered research on radioactivity, discovering two new radioactive elements (polonium and radium). Her work was critical to the development of radiotherapy.
• Antoine Henri Becquerel: A French physicist who discovered natural radioactivity in 1896. His work opened a whole new field of science and its applications.
• Ernest Rutherford: A New Zealand-born physicist who researched radioactivity and the structure of the atom. He found that atoms contained a small, dense nucleus surrounded by electrons, leading to a model of the atom. His theory on radiation and the atom was influential. His experiments on atoms transformed our understanding of their components and how they decay.
• Antonio Egas Moniz: A Portuguese neurologist who developed the controversial technique of prefrontal lobotomy. This was a surgical procedure that involved severing connections in the frontal lobes of the brain, used to treat mental illnesses.
• Lise Meitner: An Austrian-Swedish physicist whose work on nuclear fission, alongside Otto Hahn, changed the course of nuclear physics. She developed a theory explaining atomic splitting, which paved the way for advancements in nuclear power.
• Albert Einstein: A German-born theoretical physicist who developed the general theory of relativity (gravity), revolutionizing physicists' view of spacetime and gravity. He made fundamental contributions to theoretical physics, including the theory of relativity.
• Alfred Wegener: A German meteorologist and explorer who first proposed the theory of continental drift-the idea that Earth's continents were once joined together and have moved over time. This idea was later supported by geological evidence and plate tectonics.
• Tim Berners-Lee: A British computer scientist who invented the World Wide Web (WWW), making information available to anyone with internet access. His creation was a paradigm shift in how people accessed and shared information.
• Sydney Brenner: A South African biologist focused on developmental genetics and molecular biology. His work expanded scientific knowledge about how cells develop.
• Francis Crick and James Watson: British scientists who, along with their colleagues, deciphered the structure of DNA. This discovery was revolutionary to molecular biology and the understanding of heredity.
• Rosalind Franklin: A British chemist whose work on X-ray diffraction of DNA was crucial to Watson and Crick's discovery of the double helix structure. She contributed significant data about the structure of DNA's molecule.
• Maurice Wilkins: An important part of the race to discover DNA. His work was influenced and improved by Rosalind Franklin's data and the X-ray diffraction of DNA.
• Frederick Sanger: A British biochemist who developed a method for DNA sequencing, revolutionizing molecular biology.
• Henry Stommel: A US oceanographer who extensively studied ocean currents, advancing understanding of oceanography at a global level.
• Yang Chen-Ning: A Chinese-born physicist known for his groundbreaking work challenging the law of conservation of parity in subatomic decay. His research revolutionized understanding of fundamental subatomic interactions.
• Benoît Mandelbrot: A Polish-born French mathematician who founded fractal geometry. This new approach to understanding self-similar structures that appeared in nature advanced studies of these phenomena in math and related fields.
• Ernest McCulloch and James Till: Their collaboration and research uncovered the important role of stem cells in blood cell development and regeneration. This discovery was essential for understanding how blood cells regenerate and influenced the treatment of diseases.
• Tu Youyou: A Chinese pharmacologist who discovered artemisinin, an anti-parasitic drug that effectively treats malaria. Her discovery saved millions of lives and was acknowledged with a Nobel Prize.
• Richard Feynman: An American theoretical physicist who revolutionized quantum electrodynamics (QED), a branch of physics that deals with light and matter. He used diagrams to explain complex concepts making theoretical physics more accessible. Also a significant contributor to the Manhattan Project.
• Stephen Hawking: A renowned theoretical physicist who studied black holes, the Big Bang, and the nature of time. His work and theories broadened humanity's understanding of the cosmos and space.