Article ID: CBB687036261

Microbes before microbiology: Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg and Berlin’s infusoria (2022)

unapi

Naturalist Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg pioneered research on living and fossil infusoria (including protists and bacteria) since the 1830s by collecting samples from all over the world, thus describing numerous microbes and discussing their effects for the planet and for humankind. This article introduces Ehrenberg as a natural historian of microbes and situates his work in the nineteenth century life sciences with respect to debates about cell theory, evolution, and concepts of disease. I argue that in spite of occurring before these major conceptual innovations of the life sciences, Ehrenberg’s work on the diversity of microbes found in earth or air is more exciting than historiography has made it appear so far, especially in light of today’s ecological microbiology.

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Article Davina Höll; Leonie N. Bossert (2022) Introducing the microbiome: Interdisciplinary perspectives. Endeavour: Review of the Progress of Science (p. 100817). unapi

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https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB687036261/

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Authors & Contributors
Mustafa Haikal
MacKinney, Anne
Felix Lüttger
Mark Harvey
Wale, Matthew
Thomas J. Dunlap
Journals
British Journal for the History of Science
Revue d'Histoire des Sciences
Medizinhistorisches Journal
Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand
Journal of the History of Biology
History of Science
Publishers
Yale University Press
Wallstein Verlag
University of California Press
Springer
Pennsylvania State University Press
Palgrave Macmillan
Concepts
Natural history
Biographies
Ecology
Life sciences
Fossils
Zoology
People
Winogradsky, Serge
Humboldt, Alexander von
Ehrenberg, Christian Gottfried
Stainton, Henry Tibbats
Reed, Frederick
Pick, Ludwig
Time Periods
19th century
20th century
20th century, late
20th century, early
18th century
21st century
Places
Berlin (Germany)
United States
Great Britain
Russia
Northwest Passage
Prussia (Germany)
Institutions
Berlin Zoological Museum
Harquala Peak Smithsonian Observatory
Anatomical-zootomical Museum in Berlin
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