Ibn Al-Baitar

     Ibn Al-Baitar full name (Abu Muhammad Abdallah Ibn Ahmad Ibn al-Baitar Dhiya al-Din al-Malaqi) was one of the greatest scientists of Muslim Spain and was the greatest botanist and pharmacist of the Middle Ages. He was born in the Spanish city of Malaqa (Malaga) towards the end of the 12th century. He learned botany from Abu al-Abbas al-Nabati, a learned botanist, with whom he started collecting plants in and around Spain. In 1219 he left Spain on a plant-collecting expedition and travelled along the northern coast of Africa as far as Asia Minor. The exact modes of his travel (whether by land or sea) are not known, but the major stations he visited include Bugia, Qastantunia (Constantinople), Tunis, Tripoli, Barqa and Adalia. After 1224 he entered the service of al-Kamil, the Egyptian Governor, and was appointed chief herbalist. In 1227 al-Kamil extended his domination to Damascus, and Ibn al-Baitar accompanied him there which provided him an opportunity to collect plants in Syria His researches on plants extended over a vast area: including Arabia and Palestine, which he either visited or managed to collect plants from stations located there. He died in Damascus in 1248..

         Ibn Baitar's major contribution, Kitab al-Jami fi al-Adwiya al- Mufrada, is one of the greatest botanical compilations dealing with medicinal plants in Arabic. It enjoyed a high status among botanists up to the 16th century and is a systematic work that embodies earlier works, with due criticism, and adds a great part of original contribution. The encyclopedia comprises some 1,400 different items, largely medicinal plants and vegetables, of which about 200 plants were not known earlier. The book refers to the work of some 150 authors mostly Arabic, and it also quotes about 20 early Greek scientists. It was translated into Latin and published in 1758.

    His second monumental treatise Kitab al-Mlughni fi al-Adwiya al-Mufrada is an encyclopedia of medicine. The drugs are listed in accordance with their therapeutical value. Thus, its 20 different chapters deal with the plants bearing significance to diseases of head, ear, eye, etc. On surgical issues he has frequently quoted the famous Muslim surgeon, Abul Qasim Zahrawi. Besides Arabic, Baitar has given Greek and Latin names of the plants, thus facilitating transfer of knowledge.

Ibn Baitar's contributions are characterized by observation, analysis and classification and have exerted a profound influence on Eastern as well as Western botany and medicine. Though the Jami was translated/published late in the western languages as mentioned above, yet many scientists had earlier studied various parts of the book and made several references to it.

 

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Jason Kilar

    Gregor Mendel

 
Lead the video status that is handle by video supervisor and huge media content
(NBC universal,News Corp.)can bring headache,the development Hulu during 2008 is very
incredible!This status has been huge enough to force You Tube to start new bussiness
along with to be the leader watch TV online.

Kilar combines with Hulu from Amazon.com where it develop video company and lead
company effort in orderr to develop sets of equipment steady.Comscore count Hulu has
milion unique visitor more than 235 milion of videos in a month!

 

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Senior Vice President of Industrial Design, Apple

    Gregor MendelJonathan Ive.Apple is Steve Jobs and Steve Jobs is Apple.This is the consequence that is
deliver by Jobs when he deliver his speech.An ideal product that is great!Created by
Steve Jobs.Great Design?Although they have perception like that,we know that this is not
always happened.

There is total people in Apple's company that gives contribution to the success of Apple
and qualified to get publication,but there is always been behind the scene.This scenario
will change,fast or slow.Not Phil Schiller that will go on Jobs duty,unless the design
teacher Jonathan Ive.This company always known because it has focus on the design and this
is very clear it is important for the company.The next CEO Apple must have high desire
on the design,for that Jonathan Ive will be there.

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Gregor Mendel

     Mendel was born into a German-speaking family in Heinzendorf, Austrian Silesia, then part of the Austrian Empire (now Hyncice in the Czech Republic), and was baptised two days later. During his childhood Mendel worked as a gardener, and as a young man attended the Philosophical Institute in Olomouc (Olmütz). In 1843 he entered the Augustinian Abbey of St. Thomas in Brno, (Brünn). Born Johann Mendel, he took the name Gregor upon entering monastic life. In 1851 Gregor Mendelhe was sent to the University of Vienna to study, returning to his abbey in 1853 as a teacher, principally of physics. Gregor Mendel

    

Gregor Mendel, who is known as the "father of modern genetics", was inspired by both his professors at university and his colleagues at the monastery to study variation in plants, and he conducted his study in the monastery's garden. Between 1856 and 1863 Mendel cultivated and tested some 29,000 pea plants i.e. Pisum sativum . This study showed that one in four pea plants had purebred recessive alleles, two out of four were hybrid and one out of four were purebred dominant. His experiments brought forth two generalisations which later became known as Mendel's Laws of Inheritance.

Mendel read his paper, "Experiments on Plant Hybridization", at two meetings of the Natural History Society of Brünn in Moravia in 1865. When Mendel's paper was published in 1866 in Proceedings of the Natural History Society of Brünn, it had little impact and was cited about three times over the next thirty-five years. His paper received plenty of criticism at the time, but is now considered a seminal work.

Elevated as abbot in 1868, his scientific work largely ended as Mendel became consumed with his increased administrative responsibilities, especially a dispute with the civil government over their attempt to impose special taxes on religious institutions.

At first Mendel's work was rejected (and it was not widely accepted until after he died). The common belief at the time was that pangenes were responsible for inheritance. Even Darwin's theory of evolution used pangenesis instead of Mendel's model of inheritance. The modern synthesis uses Mendelian genetics.

Mendel died on January 6, 1884, in Brno, Austria-Hungary (now Czech Republic), from chronic nephritis.

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Anton van Leeuwenhoek

    Anton van LeeuwenhoekThonius Phlips van Leeuwenhoek (October 24, 1632 - August 30, 1723) was a Dutch tradesman and scientist from Delft, Netherlands. He is commonly known as "the Father of Microbiology". Born the son of a basket maker, at age 16 he secured an apprenticeship with a Scottish cloth merchant in Amsterdam. He is best known for his work on the improvement of the microscope and for his contributions towards the establishment of microbiology. Using his handcrafted microscopes he was the first to observe and describe single celled organisms, which he originally referred to as animalcules, and which we now refer to as microorganisms. He was also the first to record microscopic observations of muscle fibers, bacteria, spermatozoa and blood flow in capillaries (small blood vessels).

     During his lifetime van Leeuwenhoek ground over 500 optical lenses. He also created over 400 different types of microscopes, only nine of which still exist today. His microscopes were made of silver or copper metal frames holding hand-ground lenses. Those that have survived the years are able to magnify up to 275 times. It is suspected, though, that van Leeuwenhoek possessed some microscopes that could magnify up to 500 times. Although he has been widely regarded as a diletante or amateur, his scientific research was of remarkably high quality.

 


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James Watson & Francis Crick

     James Watson dan Francis CrickPada tahun 1951, seorang ahli biologi berumur 23 tahun, James Watson telah berpindah ke Amerika Syarikat dan bekerjasama dengan Francis Crick, seorang ahli fizik dari Universiti Cambridge. Pada masa tersebut, Crick sedang menggunakan kristolografi X-ray untuk mengkaji struktur molekul protein. Mereka bersama-sama menggunakan data kristalografi yang diperolehi daripada Rosalind Franklin dan Maurice dari King's College London untuk meramalkan struktur DNA. Dari sini, mereka telah memperolehi satu penemuan berasaskan kajian daripada saintis -saintis lain, iaitu molekul yang bernama DNA.

     DNA terbina daripada subunit-subunit yang dikenali oleh saintis sebagai nukleotida. Setiap nukleotida terbina daripada gula, fosfat dan satu bes. Terdapat 4 jenis bes yang hadir dalam molekul DNA: adenina (sejenis purina) sitosina (sejenis pirimidina) guanina (sejenis purina) tiamina (sejenis pirimidina). Bilangan bes-bes purina adalah sama dengan bes-bes pirimidina. Bilangan bes-bes adenina adalah sama dengan bes-bes tiamina. Bilangan bes-bes guanina adalah sama dengan bes-bes sitosina.

      Struktur keseluruhan molekul DNA adalah berbentuk heliks, di mana bes-bes bertindihan di atas antara satu sama lain. Dengan menggunakan model nukleotida yang dibuat melalui dawai, Watson dan Crick telah berusaha untuk mencantumkan struktur DNA dalam satu orientasi dimana model yang dihasilkan mengambil kira ciri-ciri setiap molekul yang membentuk DNA tersebut.

     Setelah berpuas hati dengan model mereka, suatu hipotesis telah dibentuk, bertajuk "Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid" di dalam Journal British Nature (April 25, 1953. volume 171:737-738.) Artikel ini telah dijadikan rujukan lebih dari 800 kali sejak ia diterbitkan. Berikut adalah petikan mereka:

     ".....Struktur DNA ini terdiri daripada dua rantai heliks yang diputarkan pada paksi yang sama... Kedua-dua rantai ini diputarkan ke arah kanan...kedua-dua rantai bertentangan antara satu sama lain...Bes-bes terletak di dalam heliks dan fosfat berada di luar..."

     "Ciri-ciri baru ialah kedua-dua rantai tersebut diikat oleh bes purina dan pirimidina, supaya kedua-duanya dicantumkan secara berpasangan...Bes-bes tersebut dipadankan secara berpasangan, bes dihubungkan dengan bes yang lain melalui ikatan hidrogen yang lemah, oleh itu ia berada bersebelahan... satu bes harus mempunyai purina dan bes yang satu lagi mempunyai pirimidina bagi menghasilkan satu pengikatan...Hanya pasangan yang spesifik sahaja boleh membentuk ikatan. James Watson dan Francis Crick

     Pasangan tersebut adalah : adenina (purina) dengan tiamina (pirimidina), dan guanina (purina) dengan sitosina (pirimidina)." "...dalam erti kata lain, adenina hanya akan berpasangan dengan tiamina, begitu juga dengan guanina berpasangan dengan sitosina.

     Jujukan dalam satu rantai adalah rawak dan tidak mempunyai urutan khas. Walau bagaimanapun, jika pasangan bes-bes yang spesifik boleh mengikat, maka satu rantai bebenang ganda dua adalah berkomplementari." dan "...Dengan pemahaman mengenai pengikatan pasangan yang spesifik, satu postulat telah dihasil iaitu satu mekanisme untuk penyalinan bahan genetik boleh dibuat." Dengan pemahaman mengenai sruktur DNA, kita berupaya melakukan manipulasi DNA yang kaya dengan maklumat.

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