Alexander Chizhevsky facts for kids
Alexander Leonidovich Chizhevsky (Russian: Алекса́ндр Леони́дович Чиже́вский) was a scientist from the Soviet Union. He was a biophysicist who started new fields of study. These included "heliobiology" (how the sun affects living things) and "aero-ionization" (how charged air affects living things). He also studied "cosmo-biology," biological rhythms, and hematology (the study of blood).
Chizhevsky used historical research methods to connect the solar cycle (which happens every 11 years) with Earth’s climate. He also linked it to how people act in large groups.
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Life and Discoveries
Alexander Chizhevsky was born in 1897 in a town called Tsekhanovets. This town was part of the Russian Empire and is now in Poland. His father, Leonid Vasilievich Chizhevsky, was a Russian military general. Alexander spent his early years and teenage years in Kaluga, Russia.
As a young person, he met Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, a famous space scientist who also lived in Kaluga. In 1915, Chizhevsky spent a summer watching the sun. He first thought that changes in the sun's activity might affect living things. In 1916, he fought in World War I for Russia. He noticed that battles seemed to get stronger or weaker depending on solar flares and geomagnetic storms.
Early Studies and Research
In 1918, Chizhevsky finished his degree in archeology in Moscow. He wrote his university thesis on "the periodicity of the world-historical process." This means he studied how historical events happen in cycles. He taught at Moscow University and also studied physics, mathematics, and medicine.
He worked at the Lazarev Biophysical Research Institute. There, he researched how ionized air affects animals. He found that negative ions in the air made animals more active. Positive ions made them more tired. Later, he worked at the Duorv Zoo-Psychology Laboratory. He collected information on how living things and the sun's activity were connected.
Important Work and Challenges
In 1926, Chizhevsky worked with Konstantin Tsiolkovsky on the first experiments in space biology. In 1931, he started the Central Research Laboratory for Ionisation in the USSR. The Soviet government supported his work on aero-ionization.
In 1935, he made an important discovery about bacteria. This was called the "Chizhevskii-Velkhover effect." It helped predict solar emissions that could be harmful to people on Earth and in space. He led two laboratories focused on aero-ionization. In 1939, he was the Honorary President of a big biophysics meeting in New York City.
In 1942, the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin learned about Chizhevsky's research. Chizhevsky had written about how solar cycles might influence historical events. These ideas did not agree with the government's views on why the Russian revolutions happened. Chizhevsky refused to change his writings. Because of this, he was arrested and spent eight years in a prison camp.
He was released in 1950 and moved to Karaganda in Kazakhstan. There, he continued his science work in coal mines. Even though he no longer wrote about solar cycle theory, he returned to Moscow. He brought aero-ionic therapy (using charged air for health) to some medical places. He became a science advisor and ran an aero-ionification laboratory.
Later Life and Legacy
Besides science, Chizhevsky was also a talented painter. His watercolor paintings were shown in Soviet art galleries. He also wrote hundreds of poems. Alexander Chizhevsky passed away in Moscow in 1964 after a long illness. He is buried in Pyatnitskoye cemetery in Moscow. His headstone has a carving of the sun. An article in the International Journal of Biometeorology said he "carved new paths" in science.
Air Ioniser
In 1918, Chizhevsky invented the first air ioniser. This device was used for "ion therapy." It was first used to help improve the health of farm animals.
Sunspots and Human Activity
Chizhevsky believed that geomagnetic storms (caused by sunspots) affected more than just electricity use or plane crashes. He thought they also influenced human thoughts and actions. He suggested that more negative ions in the air made people more excited.
Chizhevsky proposed that human history is affected by the 11-year peaks in sunspot activity. He thought these peaks could cause people to act on their problems. This could lead to revolts, revolutions, civil wars, and wars between countries.
Studying History and the Sun
He looked at records of sunspots and compared them to riots, revolutions, and wars. He studied events in Russia and 71 other countries from 500 BCE to 1922 CE. This method is called historiometry. He found that many important historical events involving large groups of people happened around the time of maximum sunspot activity.
Edward R. Dewey, who started the Foundation for the Study of Cycles, published Chizhevsky's data in 1951. Dewey described Chizhevsky's 11-year cycle as having four parts:
- A three-year period of low activity, where people are calm.
- A two-year period where groups start to organize with new leaders.
- A three-year period of high excitement, revolutions, and wars.
- A three-year period where excitement slowly decreases until people become calm again.
Later, in 1992, a researcher named Arcady A. Putilov tested Chizhevsky's idea. He found that revolutions and other events happened most often when solar activity was at its highest. They happened least often just before the lowest solar activity. In 1996, professor Suitbert Ertel also found a strong link between solar activity and revolutionary behavior.
Legacy
A main-belt asteroid (a small planet) was named 3113 Chizhevskij after Alexander Chizhevsky. It was discovered in 1978 by a Soviet astronomer.
The Chizhevsky Science Center opened in Kaluga, Russia, in 2000. It is in the home where Chizhevsky lived and worked for many years. This center is part of the Tsiolkovsky Museum. Here, Chizhevsky studied how the sun and Earth are connected. He also did experiments on how ionized air affects living things. The center has exhibits, photos, films, and tours.
See also
- Heliobiology
- Chronobiology
- Solar variation
- Geochemistry
- Biogeochemistry
- Radiogeology
- War cycles
- Revolutionary wave
- List of astronomical cycles
- Edward R. Dewey
- Nikolai Kondratiev
- Konstantin Tsiolkovsky
