Posts Tagged ‘History’
A (very) Short History of Histology
Discover the history of histology, from the first mention of a cell in 1665 to the identification and development of various stains.
Read MoreHow History Shaped Modern Optical Microscopes, Part Two: Corrected Lenses and Objectives
Discover how chromatic and geometric imaging aberrations have been corrected over the last few centuries with the development of corrected lenses and objectives.
Read MoreEpidemiology: The Underdog of Disease Studies
As bench scientists, we deal primarily with the tangible aspects of biology. The mechanisms and pathways that we try to understand not only allow for us to delve more into how the world works, but can also shed light on disease. However, there is a subject that while distant from traditional bench work, is equally…
Read MoreThe History and Future of Fluorescent Labels: We’ve Come a Long Way, Baby!
If you’ve been keeping up with our recent series of articles, welcome back! If not, you can catch up on how fluorescence works or what not to do with your flow experiment. In short, we have been discussing fluorescent labels and their role in flow cytometry. Today, I’ll round out our discussion by touching on…
Read MoreLearn-omics! What is that “Omics” I keep Stumbling Upon?
Genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics – words that in 2015 sound very familiar even to a freshman in any biology field. Although most have heard those words before, I keep encountering students or even post-graduates who find it difficult to explain what they are. So, to make things easier here is a peek behind the curtains…
Read MoreHerzenberg and the Invention of the FACS Machine
The flow cytometer that we have all grown to know and love may have only come into its own in the 1990’s, but who would have known that the first cell sorter was invented as early as the 1950’s? With the recent death of one of the key developers of fluorescence activated cell sorting (FACS),…
Read MoreThe History of PCR
As with some of the greatest discoveries in science, from penicillin to microwave ovens and play-doh, PCR was discovered serendipitously. Thanks to the work of many scientists, including Watson and Crick, Kornberg, Khorana, Klenow, Kleppe (so many K’s…) and Sanger, all the main ingredients for PCR had been described by 1980. Like butter, flour, eggs,…
Read MoreHistory of Molecular Biology
As a freshman biology major in undergrad, I was introduced to molecular biology with the following description: Molecular biology represents the intersection of genetics, biochemistry and cell biology. Some people, it turns out, add microbiology and virology into the mix. So molecular biology is often used as a catch-all, to describe a wide breadth of…
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