Jan Ingenhousz facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Jan Ingenhousz
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| Born | 8 December 1730 Breda, Staats-Brabant, Dutch Republic
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| Died | 7 September 1799 (aged 68) Calne, Wiltshire, Great Britain
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| Nationality | Dutch |
| Alma mater | Catholic University of Leuven |
| Known for | Photosynthesis |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Physiology |
| Influences | Pieter van Musschenbroek David Gaub |
Jan Ingenhousz (born December 8, 1730 – died September 7, 1799) was a Dutch-born British scientist. He was a physiologist, biologist, and chemist.
Ingenhousz is famous for discovering photosynthesis. He showed that light is super important for green plants to take in carbon dioxide and release oxygen. He also found out that plants, just like animals, have cellular respiration, which means they "breathe" too.
During his life, he was also known for successfully protecting the Habsburg royal family in Vienna from smallpox in 1768. Because of this, he became the personal doctor and advisor to the Austrian Empress Maria Theresa.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Jan Ingenhousz was born in Breda, in the Dutch Republic. When he was 16, he started studying medicine at the University of Leuven. He earned his medical degree in 1753.
He then studied for two more years at the University of Leiden. There, he learned from scientists like Pieter van Musschenbroek. This sparked Ingenhousz's lifelong interest in electricity. In 1755, he went back home to Breda and started working as a general doctor.
Work with Smallpox
After his father passed away in 1764, Ingenhousz decided to travel around Europe to learn more. He started in England, wanting to learn the newest ways to protect people from smallpox using inoculation.
Through a family friend, John Pringle, he quickly met many important people in London. He became very skilled at inoculation. In 1767, he successfully protected 700 people in a village in Hertfordshire during an outbreak.
In 1768, Empress Maria Theresa of Austria heard about his success. She wanted her own family to be protected from smallpox. Ingenhousz was chosen to travel to Austria. He used a method where a small amount of smallpox germs was given to a healthy person. This helped their body build protection against the disease. The inoculation worked, and he became the Empress's court physician. He settled in Vienna and married Agatha Maria Jacquin in 1775.
Discovering Photosynthesis
In the 1770s, Ingenhousz became very interested in how plants exchange gases. He met the scientist Joseph Priestley in 1771. Priestley had found that plants make and take in gases.
In 1779, Ingenhousz made an important discovery. He noticed that when plants were in light, their green parts gave off tiny bubbles. But when they were in the shade, the bubbles stopped. He figured out that these bubbles were oxygen. He also found that in the dark, plants give off carbon dioxide.
Ingenhousz realized that plants produce more oxygen in the light than they give off carbon dioxide in the dark. This showed that plants get some of their mass from the air, not just from water and nutrients in the soil. This process is what we now call photosynthesis.
Other Scientific Work
Besides his work in the Netherlands and Vienna, Ingenhousz also spent time in France, England, Scotland, and Switzerland. He studied electricity, how heat moves, and chemistry. He often wrote letters to other famous scientists like Benjamin Franklin and Henry Cavendish.
In 1785, he described the jerky, irregular movement of coal dust on the surface of alcohol. This observation was similar to what later became known as Brownian motion. Ingenhousz was chosen as a Fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1769. He also became a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1786.
Jan Ingenhousz passed away in 1799 near Calne in Wiltshire, England. He was buried in the churchyard of St Mary the Virgin in Calne.
Tribute
On December 8, 2017, Google Doodle celebrated his 287th birthday with a special drawing.
See also
In Spanish: Jan Ingenhousz para niños
