Darwin, Haeckel, and the "Mikluskan gas organ theory".

A previously unknown reference to the Russian ethnologist, biologist, and traveler Nikolai N. Miklucho-Maclay (1846-1888) was discovered in correspondence between Charles Darwin (1809-1882) and Ernst Haeckel (1834-1919). This reference has remained unknown to science, even to Miklucho-Maclay's biographers, probably because Darwin used the Russian nickname "Mikluska" when alluding to this young scientist.

[The importance of health-conscious nutrition education in schools : Results of an analysis of selected German framework curricula].

Background: Obesity, including among children and adolescents, is a major problem both nationally and internationally and is strongly linked to nutrition. Eating habits are formed at an early age and can influence the development of disease. Schools as places of learning and living can promote balanced and sustainable eating habits.

The biogenetic law and the Gastraea theory: From Ernst Haeckel's discoveries to contemporary views.

More than 150 years ago, in 1866, Ernst Haeckel published a book in two volumes called Generelle Morphologie der Organismen (General Morphology of Organisms) in the first volume of which he formulated his biogenetic law, famously stating that ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny. Here, we describe Haeckel's original idea as first formulated in the Generelle Morphologie der Organismen and later further developed in other publications until the present situation in which molecular data are used to test the "hourglass model," which can be seen as a modern version of the biogenetic law. We also tell the story about his discovery, while traveling in Norway, of an unknown organism, Magosphaera planula, that was important in that it helped to precipitate his ideas into what was to become the Gastraea theory.

Ernst Haeckel, Nikolai Miklucho-Maclay and the racial controversy over the Papuans.

Background: The "German Darwin" Ernst Haeckel (1834-1919) was a key figure during the first "Darwinian revolution", a time when the foundations of the modern evolutionary theory were laid. It was Haeckel, who crucially contributed to the visualization of the Darwinian theory by designing "genealogical-trees" illustrating the evolution of various species, including humans. Although the idea of explaining human evolution by natural selection belongs to Darwin, Haeckel was the first who attempted to create a new exact anthropology based on the Darwinian method.

Ernst Haeckel in the history of biology.

The German zoologist Ernst Haeckel (1834-1919) was arguably the most influential champion of Darwin's theory of evolution on the European continent and one of the most significant worldwide. As his biographer Robert Richards emphasized: "More people at the turn of the century learned of evolutionary theory from his pen than from any other source, including Darwin's own writings" [1]. Furthermore, Darwin himself considered Haeckel a crucial proponent of his theory.

Ecology and Evolution: Haeckel's Darwinian Paradigm.

Ernst Haeckel coined the term ecology in the process of Darwinizing our understanding of nature. His concept of ecology was part of a theoretical system embracing development, evolution, and environment. We outline Haeckel's views on ecology as an evolutionary science and demonstrate their importance for current theoretical developments.

Ernst Haeckel's contribution to Evo-Devo and scientific debate: a re-evaluation of Haeckel's controversial illustrations in US textbooks in response to creationist accusations.

As Blackwell (Am Biol Teach 69:135-136, 2007) pointed out, multiple authors have attempted to discredit Haeckel, stating that modern embryological studies have shown that Haeckel's drawings are stylized or embellished. More importantly, though, it has been shown that the discussion within the scientific community concerning Haeckel's drawings and the question of whether embryonic similarities are convergent or conserved have been extrapolated outside the science community in an attempt to discredit Darwin and evolutionary theory in general (Behe in Science 281:347-351, 1998; Blackwell in Am Biol Teach 69:135-136, 2007; Pickett et al. in Am Biol Teach 67:275, 2005; Wells in Am Biol Teach 61:345-349, 1999; Icons of evolution: science or myth? Why much of what we teach about evolution is wrong.

Evolutionary ethics and Haeckelian monism: the case of Heinrich Schmidt's Harmonie (1931).

This paper offers the first ever published discussion of the ethical treatise Harmonie: Versuch einer monistischen Ethik [Harmony: an attempt at a monistic ethics] by Heinrich Schmidt (1874-1935), one of the leading figures in the circle of Ernst Haeckel. Published near the end of Schmidt's life (1931), it constituted a kind of summation of decades of intense involvement in the "project" of German monism that found its epicentre in Jena, and in Haeckel's attempts at founding it on Darwinian and Goethian lines. After a brief description of Schmidt's life and works, we summarize the main lines of Haeckel's evolutionary thought and their expression in his sparse ethical writings.

Ernst Haeckel's embryology in biology textbooks in the German Democratic Republic, 1951-1988.

In our era of computers and computer models, the importance of physical or graphical models for both research and education in developmental biology (embryology) is often forgotten or at least underappreciated. Still, one important aspect of embryology is the (evolutionary) developmental anatomy of both human and animal embryos. Here, we present a short history of the visualization of Ernst Haeckel's "biogenetic law" and his "gastraea theory" in biology textbooks from the German Democratic Republic (GDR) between 1951 and 1988.

The Haeckel reception in Sweden.

The Haeckel reception in different European countries has received some attention from historians of biology, but the reception in Scandinavia remains relatively unknown. We have found letters to and from Haeckel to Swedish scientists and students in the Ernst Haeckel House in Jena and in the archives of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (RSAS) in Stockholm. Here we present correspondence with Wilhelm Leche, Sven Lovén, and M.

Ernst Haeckel (1834-1919): The German Darwin and his impact on modern biology.

The year 2019 marks the 100th anniversary of the death of Ernst Haeckel, a German zoologist, artist, and philosopher of science, who defended and supplemented Charles Darwin's system of theories regarding the mechanisms of biological evolution. We briefly recapitulate Haeckel's remarkable career and reproduce the Laudatio read by the President of the Linnean Society of London (1 July 1908), when Haeckel was awarded the Darwin-Wallace Medal. Finally, we summarize the importance of Haeckel's original concepts, insights, and theories with reference to our current knowledge in the areas of evolutionary biology, molecular phylogenetics, systematic zoology, and philosophical issues today.

100 Years of phenogenetics: Valentin Haecker and his examination of the phenotype.

Following the 'rediscovery' of Mendel's work around 1900 the study of genetics grew rapidly and multiple new inheritance theories quickly emerged such as Hugo de Vries' "Mutation Theory" (1901) and the "Boveri-Sutton Chromosome Theory" (1902). Mendel's work also caught the attention of the German geneticist Valentin Haecker, yet he was generally dissatisfied the simplicity of Mendelian genetics as he believed that inheritance and the expression of various characteristics appeared to be much more complex than the proposed "on-off hypotheses". Haecker's primary objection was that Mendelian-based theories still failed to bridge the gap between hereditary units and phenotypic traits.

Russia's new Lysenkoism.

During the late 1940s and 1950s, a pseudo-scientific concept based on Marxist-Leninist ideology became internationally known as 'Lysenkoism'. Lysenkoism was a neo-Lamarckian idea, claiming that in crop plants, such as wheat, environmental influences are heritable via all cells of the organism. Lysenkoism was applied to agriculture during the Stalin era with disastrous consequences.

The "Biogenetic Law" in zoology: from Ernst Haeckel's formulation to current approaches.

150 years ago, in 1866, Ernst Haeckel published a book in two volumes called "Generelle Morphologie der Organismen" (General Morphology of Organisms) in which he formulated his biogenetic law, famously stating that ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny. Here we describe Haeckel's original idea and follow its development in the thinking of two scientists inspired by Haeckel, Alexei Sewertzoff and Adolf Naef. Sewertzoff and Naef initially approached the problem of reformulating Haeckel's law in similar ways, and formulated comparable hypotheses at a purely descriptive level.

The First Darwinian Phylogenetic Tree of Plants.

In 1866, the German zoologist Ernst Haeckel (1834-1919) published the first Darwinian trees of life in the history of biology in his book General Morphology of Organisms. We take a specific look at the first phylogenetic trees for the plant kingdom that Haeckel created as part of this two-volume work.

Valentin Haecker (1864-1927) as a pioneer of phenogenetics: Building the bridge between genotype and phenotype.

Valentin Haecker is one of the forerunners of experimental biology, genetics, and developmental physiology. Haecker introduced the term Phänogenetik (phenogenetics) in 1918 in Entwicklungsgeschichtliche Eigenschaftsanalyse (Evolutionary Analysis of Characters), in which he described the earliest stages in the development of the phenotype. His major objective in this publication was to integrate the 2 most important concepts of Mendelian genetics-phenotype and genotype-within a well-articulated theory.

Beyond borders: on the influence of the creationist movement on the educational landscape in the USA and Russia.

This paper provides a detailed look at how creationism originated in the United States and then explores how this evangelical trend was exported to Russia by American missionaries following the fall of the USSR. The comparison between these two countries is particularly interesting since the rivalry between the US and the USSR during the race to space caused both countries to revamp their science education. Yet, while political interests led both governments to focus on science education, creationist activities were simultaneously focused on diminishing the coverage of evolution in science classrooms.

Armin von Tschermak-Seysenegg (1870-1952): Physiologist and Co-'Rediscoverer' of Mendel's laws.

The 'rediscovery' of Mendel's laws in 1900 was a turning point in modern research of heredity/genetics. According to the traditional view, adopted and fostered by many textbooks of genetics, Mendel's principles were presented in the first half of 1900 simultaneously and independently by three biologists (H. de Vries, C.

Alexei Sewertzoff and Adolf Naef: revising Haeckel's biogenetic law.

Ernst Haeckel formulated his biogenetic law, famously stating that ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny, in 1872. The Russian evolutionist Alexei Sewertzoff, and the Swiss-born zoologist Adolf Naef were among those who revised Haeckel's law, thus changing the course of evolutionary theory and of developmental biology. Although Sewertzoff and Naef approached the problem in a similar way and formulated similar hypotheses at a purely descriptive level, their theoretical viewpoints were crucially different.

The history of the oldest self-sustaining laboratory animal: 150 years of axolotl research.

Today the Mexican axolotl is critically endangered in its natural habitat in lakes around Mexico City, but thrives in research laboratories around the world, where it is used for research on development, regeneration, and evolution. Here, we concentrate on the early history of the axolotl as a laboratory animal to celebrate that the first living axolotls arrived in Paris in 1864, 150 years ago. Maybe surprisingly, at first the axolotl was distributed across Europe without being tied to specific research questions, and amateurs engaged in acclimatization and aquarium movements played an important role for the rapid proliferation of the axolotl across the continent.

Goethe's "Comparirte Anatomy" as a foundation for the growth of theoretical and applied biomedical sciences in Jena.

In this overview, we aim to outline the development of German morphology and comparative anatomy, concentrating on the "Jena school" since it played the crucial role in the growth of these disciplines. We highlight the outstanding role of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in this process and exemplify the ways he exercised influence on theoretical and applied biosciences. Goethe crucially influenced all methodological currents of comparative anatomy, and laid foundations for both theoretical and applied research programmes.

The Darwinian revolution in Germany: from evolutionary morphology to the modern synthesis.

The Darwinian revolution in the German speaking lands was the result of a variety of influences and disciplinary convergences. One of the paths led from pre-Darwinian comparative morphology via Darwinian and Lamarckian evolutionary morphology to the Modern Synthesis. Our research demonstrates that there was no immediate replacement of one paradigm by another as described in the classical work of Thomas Kuhn.