Scientists Under Glass (microscope)

Hello everyone, welcome to the "Scientist Under Glass" series. We will have a look at members of the scientific community that have in the past or are now, contributing in some way to our understanding of gardening.


First on the list is Jan Baptist van Helmont.

Born in Brussels Belgium in 1580 he was a chemist, physiologist and physician who in the middle part of the 17th century recognized that air had many components. It was through the work of scientists like van Helmont that the idea of the four elements of Air, Fire Earth and Water would lose their grip on the then, prevalent way of thinking. The word gas is attributed to van Helmont. In the mid 1600's an experiment by van Helmont would give definitive proof that plants derived their nutrition from water. In his experiment he heated soil, removing the moisture, and weighed the resulting dry soil. He then weighed and planted a 5 pound Willow in 200 pounds of soil. After 5 years of watering with only distilled water or rainwater he again weighed the plant and soil separately. While the soil had lost but a few ounces, the tree had gained 164 pounds. His conclusion was that the tree had drawn its nutrients from the water and not the soil. Interesting conclusions result from these experiments.

Some of his other experiments were also interesting.

Next up is someone who identified something we all need.


Jerry