View source for Timeline of biology and organic chemistry

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{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2014}}
{{TopicTOC-Biology}}
This '''timeline of [[biology]] and [[organic chemistry]]''' captures significant events from before 1600 to the present.
<!-- Events should, wherever possible, be provided with a reliable source. -->

==Before 1600==
* c. 520 BC – [[Alcmaeon of Croton]] distinguished [[vein]]s from [[artery|arteries]] and discovered the [[optic nerve]].
* c. 450 BC – [[Sushruta]] wrote the ''[[Sushruta Samhita]]'', redacted versions of which, by the third century AD, describe over 120 surgical instruments and 300 surgical procedures, classify human surgery into eight categories, and introduce cosmetic surgery.
* c. 450 BC – [[Xenophanes]] examined [[fossil]]s and speculated on the [[evolution]] of life.
* c. 380 BC – [[Diocles of Carystus|Diocles]] wrote the oldest known anatomy book and was the first to use the term ''anatomy''.
* c. 350 BC – [[Aristotle]] attempted a comprehensive [[Categorization|classification]] of animals. His written works include ''Historion Animalium'', a general biology of animals, ''De Partibus Animalium'', a comparative [[anatomy]] and [[physiology]] of animals, and ''De Generatione Animalium'', on developmental biology.
* c. 300 BC – [[Theophrastus|Theophrastos (or Theophrastus)]] began the systematic study of [[botany]].
* c. 300 BC – [[Herophilos]] dissected the human body.
* c. 50–70 AD – ''Historia Naturalis'' by [[Pliny the Elder]] (Gaius Plinius Secundus) was published in 37 volumes.
* 130–200 – Claudius [[Galen]] wrote numerous treatises on human anatomy.
* c. 1010 – [[Avicenna]] (Abu Ali al Hussein ibn Abdallah ibn Sina) published ''[[The Canon of Medicine]]''.
* 1543 – [[Andreas Vesalius]] publishes the anatomy treatise ''[[De humani corporis fabrica]]''.

==1600–1699==
* ?? – [[Jan Baptist van Helmont]] performed his famous tree plant experiment in which he shows that the substance of a plant derives from water, a forerunner of the discovery of photosynthesis.
* 1628 – [[William Harvey]] published ''An Anatomical Exercise on the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals''
* 1651 – William Harvey concluded that all animals, including mammals, develop from eggs, and spontaneous generation of any animal from mud or excrement was an impossibility.
* 1665 – [[Robert Hooke]] saw cells in [[cork (material)|cork]] using a microscope.
* In 1661, 1664 and 1665, the blood cells were discerned by Marcello Malpighi. In 1678, the red blood corpuscles was described by Jan Swammerdam of Amsterdam, a Dutch naturalist and physician. The first complete account of the red cells was made by Anthony van Leeuwenhoek of Delft in the last quarter of the 17th century.
* 1668 – [[Francesco Redi]] disproved spontaneous generation by showing that fly maggots only appear on pieces of meat in jars if the jars are open to the air. Jars covered with cheesecloth contained no flies.
* 1672 – [[Marcello Malpighi]] published the first description of chick development, including the formation of muscle somites, circulation, and nervous system.
* 1676 – [[Anton van Leeuwenhoek]] observed [[protozoa]] and calls them ''[[animalcules]]''.
* 1677 – Anton van Leeuwenhoek observed [[spermatozoa]].
* 1683 – Anton van Leeuwenhoek observed bacteria.  Leeuwenhoek's discoveries renew the question of spontaneous generation in microorganisms.

==1700–1799==
* 1767 – [[Kaspar Friedrich Wolff]] argued that the tissues of a developing chick form from nothing and are not simply elaborations of already-present structures in the egg.
* 1768 – [[Lazzaro Spallanzani]] again disproved spontaneous generation by showing that no organisms grow in a rich broth if it is first heated (to kill any organisms) and allowed to cool in a stoppered flask.  He also showed that fertilization in mammals requires an egg and semen.
* 1771 – [[Joseph Priestley]] demonstrated that plants produce a gas that animals and flames consume. This gas was [[oxygen]].
* 1798 – [[Thomas Malthus]] discussed human population growth and food production in ''An Essay on the Principle of Population''.

==1800–1899==
* 1801 – [[Jean-Baptiste Lamarck]] began the detailed study of [[invertebrate]] [[Taxonomy (biology)|taxonomy]].
* 1802 – The term ''biology'' in its modern sense was propounded independently by Gottfried Reinhold Treviranus (''Biologie oder Philosophie der lebenden Natur'') and Lamarck (''Hydrogéologie''). The word was coined in 1800 by Karl Friedrich Burdach.
* 1809 – Lamarck proposed a modern [[theory of evolution]] based on the inheritance of acquired characteristics.
* 1817 – [[Pierre-Joseph Pelletier]] and [[Joseph Bienaimé Caventou]] isolated [[chlorophyll]].
* 1820 – [[Christian Friedrich Nasse]] formulated Nasse's law: [[hemophilia]] occurs only in males and is passed on by unaffected females.
* 1824 – J. L. Prevost and J. B. Dumas showed that the sperm in semen were not parasites, as previously thought, but, instead, the agents of fertilization.
* 1826 – [[Karl von Baer]] showed that the [[Egg (biology)|egg]]s of [[mammal]]s are in the ovaries, ending a 200-year search for the mammalian egg.
* 1828 – [[Friedrich Woehler]] synthesized [[urea]]; first synthesis of an [[organic compound]] from inorganic starting materials.
* 1836 – [[Theodor Schwann]] discovered [[pepsin]] in extracts from the [[stomach]] lining; first isolation of an animal [[enzyme]].
* 1837 – Theodor Schwann showed that heating air will prevent it from causing putrefaction.
* 1838 – [[Matthias Schleiden]] proposed that all plants are composed of cells.
* 1839 – [[Theodor Schwann]] proposed that all animal tissues are composed of cells. Schwann and Schleinden argued that cells are the elementary particles of life.
* 1843 – [[Martin Barry]] reported the fusion of a sperm and an egg for rabbits in a 1-page paper in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London.
* 1856 – [[Louis Pasteur]] stated that microorganisms produce [[fermentation (biochemistry)|fermentation]].
* 1858 – [[Charles Darwin|Charles R. Darwin]] and [[Alfred Russel Wallace|Alfred Wallace]] independently proposed a theory of biological evolution ("descent through modification") by means of [[natural selection]].  Only in later editions of his works did Darwin used the term "evolution."
* 1858 – [[Rudolf Virchow]] proposed that cells can only arise from pre-existing cells; "Omnis cellula e celulla," all cell from cells. The [[Cell Theory]] states that all organisms are composed of cells (Schleiden and Schwann), and cells can only come from other cells (Virchow).
* 1864 – [[Louis Pasteur]] disproved the spontaneous generation of cellular life.
* 1865 – [[Gregor Mendel]] demonstrated in pea plants that inheritance follows [[Mendelian Inheritance|definite rules]]. The Principle of Segregation states that each organism has two genes per trait, which segregate when the organism makes eggs or sperm. The Principle of Independent Assortment states that each gene in a pair is distributed independently during the formation of eggs or sperm. Mendel's trailblazing foundation for the science of genetics went unnoticed, to his lasting disappointment.
* 1865 – [[Friedrich August Kekulé von Stradonitz]] realized that [[benzene]] is composed of [[carbon]] and [[hydrogen]] atoms in a hexagonal ring.
* 1869 – [[Friedrich Miescher]] discovered [[nucleic acid]]s in the [[cell nucleus|nuclei]] of cells.
* 1874 – [[Jacobus van 't Hoff]] and [[Joseph-Achille Le Bel]] advanced a three-dimensional stereochemical representation of organic molecules and propose a tetrahedral carbon atom.
* 1876 – [[Oskar Hertwig]] and [[Hermann Fol]] independently described (in [[sea urchin]] eggs) the entry of sperm into the egg and the subsequent fusion of the egg and sperm nuclei to form a single new nucleus.
* 1884 – [[Hermann Emil Fischer|Emil Fischer]] began his detailed analysis of the compositions and structures of sugars.
* 1892 – [[Hans Driesch]] separated the individual cells of a 2-cell sea urchin embryo and shows that each cell develops into a complete individual, thus disproving the theory of preformation and showing that each cell is "totipotent," containing all the hereditary information necessary to form an individual.
* 1898 – [[Martinus Beijerinck]] used filtering experiments to show that [[tobacco mosaic disease]] is caused by something smaller than a bacterium, which he names a [[virus (biology)|virus]].

==1900–1949==
* 1900 – [[Hugo de Vries]], [[Carl Correns]] and [[Erich von Tschermak]] independently rediscovered Mendel's paper on heredity.
* 1902 – [[Walter Sutton]] and [[Theodor Boveri]], independently proposed that the chromosomes carry the hereditary information.
* 1905 – [[William Bateson]] coined the term "[[genetics]]" to describe the study of biological inheritance.
* 1906 – [[Mikhail Tsvet]] discovered the [[chromatography]] technique for organic compound separation.
* 1907 – [[Ivan Pavlov]] demonstrated conditioned responses with salivating dogs.
* 1907 – [[Hermann Emil Fischer]] artificially synthesized [[peptide]] [[amino acid]] chains and thereby shows that amino acids in [[protein]]s are connected by amino group-acid group bonds.
* 1909 – [[Wilhelm Johannsen]] coined the word "gene."
* 1911 – [[Thomas Hunt Morgan]] proposed that genes are arranged in a line on the [[chromosome]]s.
* 1922 – [[Aleksandr Oparin]] proposed that the Earth's early atmosphere contained methane, ammonia, hydrogen, and water vapor, and that these were the raw materials for the [[origin of life]].
* 1926 – [[James B. Sumner]] showed that the [[urease]] enzyme is a protein.
* 1928 – [[Otto Diels]] and [[Kurt Alder]] discovered the [[Diels-Alder cycloaddition reaction]] for forming ring molecules.
* 1928 – [[Alexander Fleming]] discovered the first antibiotic, [[penicillin]]
* 1929 – [[Phoebus Levene]] discovered the sugar [[deoxyribose]] in nucleic acids.
* 1929 – [[Edward Doisy]] and [[Adolf Butenandt]] independently discovered [[estrone]].
* 1930 – [[John Howard Northrop]] showed that the [[pepsin]] enzyme is a protein.
* 1931 – [[Adolf Butenandt]] discovered [[androsterone]].
* 1932 – [[Hans Adolf Krebs]] discovered the [[urea cycle]].
* 1933 – [[Tadeus Reichstein]] artificially synthesized [[vitamin C]]; first [[vitamin]] synthesis.
* 1935 – [[Rudolf Schoenheimer]] used [[deuterium]] as a tracer to examine the fat storage system of [[rat]]s.
* 1935 – [[Wendell Stanley]] [[crystal]]lized the [[tobacco mosaic virus]].
* 1935 – [[Konrad Lorenz]] described the [[imprinting (psychology)|imprinting]] behavior of young birds.
* 1937 – [[Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin]] discovered the three-dimensional structure of [[cholesterol]].
* 1937 – [[Hans Adolf Krebs]] discovered the [[Citric acid cycle|tricarboxylic acid cycle]].
* 1937 – In Genetics and the Origin of Species, [[Theodosius Dobzhansky]] applies the chromosome theory and population genetics to natural populations in the first mature work of [[neo-Darwinism]], also called the [[Modern synthesis (20th century)|modern synthesis]], a term coined by [[Julian Huxley]].
* 1938 – [[Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer]] discovered a living [[coelacanth]] off the coast of southern Africa.
* 1940 – [[Donald Griffin]] and [[Robert Galambos]] announced their discovery of [[Animal echolocation|echolocation]] by [[bat]]s.
* 1942 – [[Max Delbrück]] and [[Salvador Luria]] demonstrated that bacterial resistance to virus infection is caused by random mutation and not adaptive change.
* 1944 – [[Oswald Avery]] shows that [[DNA]] carried the hereditary information in [[pneumococci|pneumococcus]] bacteria.
* 1944 – [[Robert Burns Woodward]] and [[William von Eggers Doering]] synthesized [[quinine]].
* 1945 – [[Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin]] discovered the three-dimensional structure of [[penicillin]].
* 1948 – [[Erwin Chargaff]] showed that in DNA the number of [[guanine]] units equals the number of [[cytosine]] units and the number of [[adenine]] units equals the number of [[thymine]] units.

==1950–1989==
* 1951 – The research group of [[Robert Robinson (organic chemist)|Robert Robinson]] with [[John Cornforth]] ([[Oxford University]]) publishes their synthesis of [[cholesterol]], while [[Robert Burns Woodward|Robert Woodward]] ([[Harvard University]]) publishes his synthesis of [[cortisone]].
* 1951 – [[Fred Sanger]], [[Hans Tuppy]] completed their chromatographic analysis of the [[insulin]] amino acid sequence.
* 1952 – American developmental biologists Robert Briggs and Thomas King cloned the first vertebrate by transplanting nuclei from leopard frogs embryos into enucleated eggs. More differentiated cells were the less able they are to direct development in the enucleated egg.
* 1952 – [[Alfred Hershey]] and [[Martha Chase]] showed that DNA is the genetic material in [[bacteriophage]] viruses.
* 1952 – [[Rosalind Franklin]] concluded that [[DNA]] is a double helix with a diameter of 2&nbsp;nm and the sugar-phosphate backbones on the outside of the helix, based on x ray diffraction studies. She suspected the two sugar-phosphate backbones have a peculiar relationship to each other.
* 1953 – After examining Franklin's unpublished data, [[James D. Watson]] and [[Francis Crick]] published a double-helix structure for [[DNA]], with one sugar-phosphate backbone running in the opposite direction to the other. They further suggested a mechanism by which the molecule can replicate itself and serve to transmit genetic information. Their paper, combined with the [[Alfred Hershey|Hershey]]-[[Martha Chase|Chase]] experiment and [[Chargaff]]'s data on nucleotides, finally persuaded biologists that DNA is the genetic material, not protein.
* 1953 – [[Stanley Miller]] showed that amino acids can be formed when simulated [[lightning]] is passed through vessels containing water, [[methane]], [[ammonia]], and [[hydrogen]]
* 1954 – [[Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin]] discovered the three-dimensional structure of [[vitamin B12|vitamin B<sub>12</sub>]].
* 1955 – [[Marianne Grunberg-Manago]] and [[Severo Ochoa]] discovered the first nucleic-acid-synthesizing enzyme (polynucleotide phosphorylase), which links nucleotides together into polynucleotides.
* 1955 – [[Arthur Kornberg]] discovered [[DNA polymerase]] enzymes.
* 1958 – [[John Gurdon]] used nuclear transplantation to [[cloning|clone]] an African [[Clawed Frog]]; first cloning of a [[vertebrate]] using a nucleus from a fully differentiated adult cell.
* 1958 – [[Matthew Stanley Meselson]] and [[Franklin W. Stahl]] proved that DNA replication is [[semiconservative]] in the [[Meselson-Stahl experiment]]
* 1959 – [[Max Perutz]] comes up with a model for the structure of oxygenated [[hemoglobin]].
* 1959 – [[Severo Ochoa]] and [[Arthur Kornberg]] received the Nobel Prize for their work.
* 1960 – [[John Kendrew]] described the structure of [[myoglobin]], the oxygen-carrying protein in muscle.
* 1960 – Four separate researchers (S. Weiss, J. Hurwitz, [[Audrey Stevens Niyogi]] and J. Bonner) discovered bacterial RNA polymerase, which polymerizes nucleotides under the direction of DNA.
* 1960 – [[Robert Burns Woodward|Robert Woodward]] synthesized chlorophyll.
* 1961 – [[J. Heinrich Matthaei]] cracked the first codon of the genetic code (the codon for the amino acid phenylalanine) using [[Marianne Grunberg-Manago|Grunberg-Manago]]'s 1955 enzyme system for making polynucleotides.
* 1961 – [[Joan Oró]] found that concentrated solutions of ammonium cyanide in water can produce the nucleotide adenine, a discovery that opened the way for theories on the [[origin of life]].
* 1962 – [[Max Perutz]] and [[John Kendrew]] shared the Nobel prize for their work on the structure of [[hemoglobin]] and [[myoglobin]].
* 1966 – Genetic code fully cracked through trial-and-error experimental work.<ref>Tobin, Allan, and Dusheck, Jennie, (1998), ''Asking About Life,'' Saunders College Publishing, pg 267, {{ISBN|003072046X}}</ref>
* 1966 – [[Kimishige Ishizaka]] discovered a new type of immunoglobulin, IgE, that develops allergy and explains the mechanisms of allergy at molecular and cellular levels.
* 1966 – [[Lynn Margulis]] proposed the [[endosymbiotic theory]], that the [[eukaryotic cell]] is a [[symbiosis|symbiotic]] union of primitive prokaryotic cells. Richard Dawkins called the theory "one of the great achievements of twentieth-century evolutionary biology."
* 1968 – [[Fred Sanger]] used radioactive [[phosphorus]] as a tracer to chromatographically [[decipher]] a 120 base long RNA sequence.
* 1969 – [[Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin]] deciphered the three-dimensional structure of [[insulin]].
* 1970 – [[Hamilton O. Smith|Hamilton Smith]] and [[Daniel Nathans]] discovered DNA [[restriction enzyme]]s.
* 1970 – [[Howard Temin]] and [[David Baltimore]] independently discovered [[reverse transcriptase]] enzymes.
* 1972 – [[Albert Eschenmoser]] and [[Robert Burns Woodward|Robert Woodward]] synthesized [[Vitamin B12|vitamin B<sub>12</sub>]].
* 1972 – [[Stephen Jay Gould]] and [[Niles Eldredge]] proposed an idea they call "[[punctuated equilibrium]]", which states that the fossil record is an accurate depiction of the pace of evolution, with long periods of "stasis" (little change) punctuated by brief periods of rapid change and species formation (within a lineage).
* 1972 – [[Seymour Jonathan Singer]] and [[Garth L. Nicholson]] developed the fluid mosaic model, which deals with the make-up of the membrane of all cells.
* 1974 – [[Manfred Eigen]] and [[Manfred Sumper]] showed that mixtures of nucleotide monomers and [[RNA replicase]] will give rise to RNA molecules which replicate, mutate, and evolve.
* 1974 – [[Leslie Orgel]] showed that RNA can replicate without RNA-replicase and that [[zinc]] aids this replication.
* 1977 – [[Jack Corliss|John Corliss]] and ten coauthors discovered chemosynthetically based animal communities located around submarine [[hydrothermal vent]]s on the [[Galapagos Rift]].
* 1977 – [[Walter Gilbert]] and [[Allan Maxam]] present a rapid [[DNA sequencing]] technique which uses cloning, base destroying chemicals, and [[gel electrophoresis]].
* 1977 – [[Carl Woese]] and [[George E. Fox]] discover [[archaebacteria]], a third domain of life distinct from [[prokaryotes]] and [[eukaryotes]], by analyzing [[16S ribosomal RNA]].
* 1977 – Frederick Sanger and [[Alan Coulson]] presented a rapid gene sequencing technique which uses [[dideoxynucleotide]]s and gel electrophoresis.
* 1978 – Frederick Sanger presented the 5,386 base sequence for the virus PhiX174; first sequencing of an entire [[genome]].
* 1981 - The first extant species of [[Remipedia|remipedes]], a new [[class (biology)|class]] of [[crustacean]]s, is described.
* 1982 – [[Stanley B. Prusiner]] proposed the existence of infectious proteins, or [[prion]]s. His idea is widely derided in the scientific community, but he wins a Nobel Prize in 1997.
* 1983 – [[Kary Mullis]] invented "PCR" ( [[polymerase chain reaction]]), an automated method for rapidly copying sequences of DNA.
* 1984 – [[Alec Jeffreys]] devised a [[genetic fingerprinting]] method.
* 1985 – [[Harry Kroto]], [[J.R. Heath]], [[S.C. O'Brien]], [[R.F. Curl]], and [[Richard Smalley]] discovered the unusual stability of the [[buckminsterfullerene]] molecule and deduce its structure.
* 1986 – [[Alexander Klibanov (chemist)|Alexander Klibanov]] demonstrated that enzymes can function in non-aqueous environments.
* 1986 – [[Rita Levi-Montalcini]] and [[Stanley Cohen (biochemist)|Stanley Cohen]] received the [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine]] for their discovery of [[Nerve growth factor|Nerve growth factor (NGF)]].

==1990–present==
* 1990 – [[French Anderson]] et al. performed the first approved [[gene therapy]] on a human patient
* 1990 – Napoli, Lemieux and Jorgensen discovered [[RNA interference]] (1990) during experiments aimed at the color of [[petunia]]s.
* 1990 – [[Wolfgang Krätschmer]], [[Lowell Lamb]], [[Konstantinos Fostiropoulos]], and [[Donald Huffman]] discovered that Buckminsterfullerene can be separated from [[soot]] because it is soluble in [[benzene]].<!--* ??— Meteorite from Mars discovered, which some scientists believe contains evidence of single cell life on Mars. -->
* 1995 – Publication of the first complete genome of a free-living organism.
* 1995 - [[Symbion pandora]], the first known species from the phylum [[Cycliophora]] is described by [[Reinhardt Kristensen]] and [[Peter Funch]].
* 1996 –  [[Dolly the sheep]] was first clone of an adult mammal.
* 1998 – Mello and Fire publish their work on [[RNA interference|RNAi]] in c.elegans, for which they shared the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
* 1999 – Researchers at the Institute for Human Gene Therapy at the [[University of Pennsylvania]] accidentally kill [[Jesse Gelsinger]] during a clinical trial of a [[gene therapy]] technique, leading the FDA to halt further gene therapy trials at the institute.
* 2000 - [[Reinhardt Kristensen]] and [[Peter Funch]] describe [[Limnognathia maerski]], the first known species from the [[phylum]] [[Micrognathozoa]].
* 2001 - First [[insect]]s from the [[order (biology)|suborder]] [[Mantophasmatodea]] are discovered.
* 2001 – Publication of the first drafts of the complete human genome (see [[Craig Venter]]).
* 2002 – First virus produced 'from scratch', an artificial polio virus that paralyzes and kills mice.
* 2007 – Commercialization of [[DNA sequencing|Illumina Next generation Sequencing]] tools. This has become the most popular high-throughput sequencing system.
* 2012 – Use of [[CRISPR|CRISPR-Cas9]] as a DNA-editing biotechnology tool.

==See also==
* [[Timeline of medicine and medical technology]]
* [[History of biology]]
* [[History of chemistry]]
* [[Timeline of zoology]]
* [[Timeline of paleontology]]
* [[International Institute for Species Exploration]]

== Footnotes ==
{{Reflist|2}}

{{History of biology}}
{{Branches of biology}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Timeline Of Biology And Organic Chemistry}}
[[Category:Biology timelines|Biology and organic chemistry]]
[[Category:Chemistry timelines|Organic chemistry and biology]]

[[es:Historia de la biología]]