Erwin Bünning
Encyclopedia
Dr Erwin Bünning was a German
biologist
. His pioneering research in botany and plant physiology resulted in several contributions in phototropism
, phototaxis
, differentiation, growth substances and even Tropical Forests. He made his most famous contributions in the area of chronobiology
.
to Heinrich Bünning, a school teacher, and Hermine Winkler. His father taught German, English, Mathematics and Biology. A firm Social Democrat
opposed to the Nazis, he was the earliest academic influence in Erwin's life. Erwin Bünning studied Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Philosophy, at the Universities of Berlin
and Göttingen, between October 1925 and July 1928, and earned his Doctorate of Philosophy in May 1929 from Berlin. He became a Scientific Assistant in the University of Jena in 1930. Tensions with students active in the Nazi movement caused him to move to a lectureship in the East Prussian University of Königsberg
.
Bünning travelled to Java
and Sumatra
in 1938 for a year. His observations on the islands resulted in the book Tropische Regenwalder (Tropical Rainforests). When he returned to Germany, he was conscripted into the army. During World War II
, he was appointed Reader at the University of Strasbourg
. After the war, he became a professor at the University of Cologne
in 1945. He moved to the University of Tübingen the next year, where he stayed until 1971, when he retired on his 65th birthday. He published over 260 papers in various fields of plant physiology and general biology, as well as a very popular text book on plant physiology. He also wrote a biography of Wilhelm Pfeffer
.
Bünning married Eleanore, and they had three children.
Bünning suffered from Alzheimer's Disease
, and died on 4 October 1990, after contracting pneumonia. Writing about his death, the German newspaper Swabisches Tagblatt described him as one of the greatest botanists of the 20th century.
Chronobiology investigates biological rhythms occurring in some prokaryotes and in all eukaryotes from fungi to humans. The most common of these rhythms, called Circadian rhythms or Biological Clocks, have a periodicity of 24 hours.
. He was elected Corresponding Member of the Botanical Society of America in 1961. He won the Charles Reid Barnes Life Membership award of the American Society of Plant Biologists in 1973.
The universities of Glasgow
(1974), Freiburg
(1977), Erlangen (1977) and Göttingen (1986) conferred honorary doctorates on him. He was a Member of the Deutsche Akademie der Wissenschaften, Berlin, Leopoldina, Halle, Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften, Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften, National Academy of Sciences, USA, Washington, Foreign Member of the Royal Society of London and an Honorary Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences
.
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
biologist
Biologist
A biologist is a scientist devoted to and producing results in biology through the study of life. Typically biologists study organisms and their relationship to their environment. Biologists involved in basic research attempt to discover underlying mechanisms that govern how organisms work...
. His pioneering research in botany and plant physiology resulted in several contributions in phototropism
Phototropism
Phototropism is directional growth in which the direction of growth is determined by the direction of the light source. In other words, it is the growth and response to a light stimulus. Phototropism is most often observed in plants, but can also occur in other organisms such as fungi...
, phototaxis
Phototaxis
Phototaxis is a kind of taxis, or locomotory movement, that occurs when a whole organism moves in response to the stimulus of light. This is advantageous for phototrophic organisms as they can orient themselves most efficiently to receive light for photosynthesis...
, differentiation, growth substances and even Tropical Forests. He made his most famous contributions in the area of chronobiology
Chronobiology
Chronobiology is a field of biology that examines periodic phenomena in living organisms and their adaptation to solar- and lunar-related rhythms. These cycles are known as biological rhythms. Chronobiology comes from the ancient Greek χρόνος , and biology, which pertains to the study, or science,...
.
Life
Bünning was born in HamburgHamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
to Heinrich Bünning, a school teacher, and Hermine Winkler. His father taught German, English, Mathematics and Biology. A firm Social Democrat
Social Democratic Party of Germany
The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany...
opposed to the Nazis, he was the earliest academic influence in Erwin's life. Erwin Bünning studied Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Philosophy, at the Universities of Berlin
Humboldt University of Berlin
The Humboldt University of Berlin is Berlin's oldest university, founded in 1810 as the University of Berlin by the liberal Prussian educational reformer and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt, whose university model has strongly influenced other European and Western universities...
and Göttingen, between October 1925 and July 1928, and earned his Doctorate of Philosophy in May 1929 from Berlin. He became a Scientific Assistant in the University of Jena in 1930. Tensions with students active in the Nazi movement caused him to move to a lectureship in the East Prussian University of Königsberg
University of Königsberg
The University of Königsberg was the university of Königsberg in East Prussia. It was founded in 1544 as second Protestant academy by Duke Albert of Prussia, and was commonly known as the Albertina....
.
Bünning travelled to Java
Java
Java is an island of Indonesia. With a population of 135 million , it is the world's most populous island, and one of the most densely populated regions in the world. It is home to 60% of Indonesia's population. The Indonesian capital city, Jakarta, is in west Java...
and Sumatra
Sumatra
Sumatra is an island in western Indonesia, westernmost of the Sunda Islands. It is the largest island entirely in Indonesia , and the sixth largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 with a population of 50,365,538...
in 1938 for a year. His observations on the islands resulted in the book Tropische Regenwalder (Tropical Rainforests). When he returned to Germany, he was conscripted into the army. During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, he was appointed Reader at the University of Strasbourg
University of Strasbourg
The University of Strasbourg in Strasbourg, Alsace, France, is the largest university in France, with about 43,000 students and over 4,000 researchers....
. After the war, he became a professor at the University of Cologne
University of Cologne
The University of Cologne is one of the oldest universities in Europe and, with over 44,000 students, one of the largest universities in Germany. The university is part of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, an association of Germany's leading research universities...
in 1945. He moved to the University of Tübingen the next year, where he stayed until 1971, when he retired on his 65th birthday. He published over 260 papers in various fields of plant physiology and general biology, as well as a very popular text book on plant physiology. He also wrote a biography of Wilhelm Pfeffer
Wilhelm Pfeffer
Wilhelm Friedrich Philipp Pfeffer was a German botanist and plant physiologist who was born in Grebenstein.- Academic career :...
.
Bünning married Eleanore, and they had three children.
Bünning suffered from Alzheimer's Disease
Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease also known in medical literature as Alzheimer disease is the most common form of dementia. There is no cure for the disease, which worsens as it progresses, and eventually leads to death...
, and died on 4 October 1990, after contracting pneumonia. Writing about his death, the German newspaper Swabisches Tagblatt described him as one of the greatest botanists of the 20th century.
Key contributions
In the early-1930s, Bünning proposed that a circadian rhythm of sensitivity to light was being used to measure how much daylight was "encroaching" into the night-time, thus measuring the photoperiod. He demonstrated that plants and insects behaved according to circadian rhythms, whether or not they were in continuous light or darkness. His crossing experiments with bean plants of different periods in 1932 demonstrated that the next generation had periods of intermediate durations, supporting the suggestion that circadian rhythms are heritable. In 1935, Erwin Bünning determined in plants the genetic origin of the "biological clock," a term he coined. It took at least a decade of experimental work by Bunning and others for this proposal, called the Bünning Hypothesis, to get firmly accepted by chronobiologists.Chronobiology investigates biological rhythms occurring in some prokaryotes and in all eukaryotes from fungi to humans. The most common of these rhythms, called Circadian rhythms or Biological Clocks, have a periodicity of 24 hours.
Honours
Bünning chaired the now famous meeting on Biological Clocks at the 25th Cold Spring Harbor Symposium in 1960, convened by Colin PittendrighColin Pittendrigh
Colin Pittendrigh was a US-American biologist of English parentage. He is a co-founder of modern chronobiology along with Jürgen Aschoff and Erwin Bünning.-Life:...
. He was elected Corresponding Member of the Botanical Society of America in 1961. He won the Charles Reid Barnes Life Membership award of the American Society of Plant Biologists in 1973.
The universities of Glasgow
University of Glasgow
The University of Glasgow is the fourth-oldest university in the English-speaking world and one of Scotland's four ancient universities. Located in Glasgow, the university was founded in 1451 and is presently one of seventeen British higher education institutions ranked amongst the top 100 of the...
(1974), Freiburg
University of Freiburg
The University of Freiburg , sometimes referred to in English as the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg, is a public research university located in Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.The university was founded in 1457 by the Habsburg dynasty as the...
(1977), Erlangen (1977) and Göttingen (1986) conferred honorary doctorates on him. He was a Member of the Deutsche Akademie der Wissenschaften, Berlin, Leopoldina, Halle, Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften, Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften, National Academy of Sciences, USA, Washington, Foreign Member of the Royal Society of London and an Honorary Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences
Indian Academy of Sciences
The Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore was founded by Sir C. V. Raman, and was registered as a Society on 24 April 1934. Inaugurated on 31 July 1934, it began with 65 founding fellows. The first general meeting of Fellows, held on the same day, elected Professor Raman as President, and adopted...
.
Partial bibliography
- Uber die Erblichkeit der Tagesperiodizitat bei den Phaseolus-Blattern (1932)
- Die endogene Tagesperiodik als Grundlage der photoperiodischen Reaktion (1936)
- Entwicklungs und Bewegungsphysiologie der Pflanze (1948)
- In den Waldern Nordsumatras : Reisebuch eines Biologen (In the North Sumatran Forests : Travels of a Biologist, 1949)
- Die physiologische Uhr (The Physiological Clock, 1958)
- Biological clocks; Chairman's Address; Cold Spring Harbor Symposium (1960)
- Interference of Moonlight with the Photoperiodic Measurement of Time by Plants, and their Adaptive Reaction (1969, With Ilse Moser)
- Wilhelm Pfeffer : Apotheker, Chemiker, Botaniker, Physiologe 1845–1920 (1975)
- Pfeffer's views on rhythms (1975, With Chandrashekaran M K)
- Fifty years of research in the wake of Wilhelm Pfeffer (1977)