Tag: Geek of the Week

Geek of the Week: Theobald Smith

Geek of the Week: Theobald Smith

By Joe Luna Imagine that you’re a Texas rancher in 1887 and your cattle are dying of a strange fever. Not all of them, you notice, only those recently brought from the north of the country (weak yankee bovines!) Your southern cattle are otherwise fine. […]

Geek of the Week: Friedrich Wöhler

Geek of the Week: Friedrich Wöhler

By Joe Luna IN THE BEGINNING, there was Jons Jacob Berzelius. Discoverer of silicon, scribe of the Law of Constant Proportions, coiner of the word “protein”, we need not add to the tomes outlining his greatness as a father of modern chemistry (plus he was […]

Geeks of the Week: Harlow Shapley & Heber Curtis

Geeks of the Week: Harlow Shapley & Heber Curtis

By Joe Luna A century or so ago, the Milky Way was considered the extent of the universe, though astronomers concerned with the size of the universe faced a puzzle. They had seen clouds (“nebulae”), and observed that these nebulae had unusual properties. For one […]

Geek of the Week: Theodor Svedberg

Geek of the Week: Theodor Svedberg

By Joe Luna You likely use one everyday. For your cells, your Qiagen columns, your sucrose gradients. There’s probably a small one sitting on your bench right now, with its bigger cousin likely not much farther in a neighboring support room. You place your samples […]

Geek of the Week: Ernest Duchesne

Geek of the Week: Ernest Duchesne

By Joe Luna What do guinea pigs, gorgonzola cheese, and tap water have in common? No, you’re not about to have some bizarre meal. It’s a bit of a trick question, as they don’t really have anything in common. But if you were a French […]

Geek of the Week: Nettie Maria Stevens

Geek of the Week: Nettie Maria Stevens

By Joe Luna Now here is a paper title from 1905 – “Studies in Spermatogenesis with Especial Reference to the Accessory Chromosome” published in the 36th publication from the Carnegie Institute of Washington. For all the male readers out there, your father may have given […]