John Woodland Hastings facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
John Woodland Hastings
|
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born | March 24, 1927 |
| Died | August 6, 2014 (aged 87) |
| Nationality | American |
| Citizenship | United States |
| Alma mater | Swarthmore College, 1944-1947; BA 1947 (Navy V-12 medical officers training program)
Princeton University, 1948-1951; M.A. 1950, PhD. 1951 Johns Hopkins University, 1951-1953 Postdoctoral Fellow |
| Known for | Founding circadian biology |
| Awards | NATO Senior Fellow in Science, Foundation Curie, Orsay, France, 1977 |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Bioluminescence, Circadian rhythms |
| Institutions | Instructor in Biological Sciences Northwestern University 1953-1957
Assistant Professor of Biochemistry University of Illinois 1957-1966 Professor of Biology Harvard University, 1966-1986; Paul C. Mangelsdorf Professor of Natural Sciences Harvard University 1986 - 2014 |
| Thesis | Oxygen concentration and bioluminescence intensity (1951) |
| Doctoral advisor | E. Newton Harvey |
| Other academic advisors | William D. McElroy |
John Woodland "Woody" Hastings (March 24, 1927 – August 6, 2014) was a very important scientist. He was a leader in studying how living things make light, which is called bioluminescence. He also helped create the field of circadian biology. This is the study of our body's natural clocks, like why we feel sleepy at night and awake during the day. He was a professor at Harvard University.
His research often focused on tiny glowing bacteria and special tiny sea creatures called dinoflagellates. He also studied how other animals like fireflies and some fish make light. His lab found the first clues about how bacteria "talk" to each other. This process is called quorum sensing. He also studied how green fluorescent protein (GFP) helps some animals glow green.
Contents
Early Life and Education
John Woodland Hastings spent his early childhood in Seaford, Delaware. In 1937, he joined the choir at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. He attended the choir's boarding school and visited his family during holidays.
In 1941, Hastings moved to Lenox School in Lenox, Massachusetts. He finished his high school education there. He was interested in many subjects, including literature, physics, and mathematics. He also enjoyed playing ice hockey and basketball.
Awards and Honors
Throughout his career, Hastings received many important awards and honors:
- Guggenheim Fellow, 1965
- Elected to the Johns Hopkins Society of Scholars, 1969
- Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1972
- NATO Senior Fellow in Science, Foundation Curie, France, 1977
- Alexander von Humboldt Fellow, Germany, 1979-80 and 1993
- Yamada Foundation Fellow, Japan, 1986
- NIMH Merit Award, 1990 and 1994
- Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology, 2003
- American Society for Photobiology Lifetime Achievement Award, 2003
- Elected to the National Academy of Sciences, 2003
- Recipient of the Farrell Prize in Sleep Medicine, 2006. This award recognized his important work in founding the field of circadian rhythms.
Career Journey
Hastings began his advanced studies at Princeton University in 1948. He worked in the lab of E. Newton Harvey, a leading expert in how living things make light. Hastings focused on how oxygen affects the light produced by bacteria, fireflies, and fungi. He earned his PhD in 1951.
After Princeton, he joined the lab of William D. McElroy at Johns Hopkins University. There, he found that certain chemicals could make fireflies glow brighter. He also discovered that a substance called flavin is important for bacteria to make light.
In 1953, he became a professor at Northwestern University. In 1954, he started working with Beatrice M. Sweeney. They studied how tiny sea creatures called dinoflagellates make light. During this research, they made an exciting discovery: the dinoflagellates' glowing was controlled by their circadian clock. This is like a daily schedule for their bodies.
In 1957, Hastings moved to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He continued his work on glowing dinoflagellates and bacteria, and their daily rhythms. In 1966, he became a professor at Harvard University. He kept studying circadian rhythms in dinoflagellates and how different organisms make light.
He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2003. In 2006, he received the Farrell Prize for his work on circadian rhythms. For over 50 years, he was also involved with the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.
Amazing Research Discoveries
Glowing Bacteria
John Hastings' studies on glowing bacteria led to many important discoveries. He helped figure out how these bacteria make light. He also found that a substance called flavin is key to their light-making process.
His lab also found the first evidence of something called quorum sensing. This is how bacteria "talk" to each other. They release a special substance into their surroundings. When enough of this substance builds up, it tells the bacteria that there are many of them nearby. This signal then turns on certain genes. For example, some harmful bacteria use quorum sensing to delay making toxins until their population is large enough to overwhelm a host's defenses.
Glowing Dinoflagellates
Starting in 1954, Hastings and his team at Northwestern University studied how dinoflagellates make light. They focused on a species called Lingulodinium polyedrum. They figured out the structures of the chemicals involved in light production. They also learned how the genes for these chemicals are controlled.
They discovered tiny parts inside the dinoflagellate cells that make light. They called these parts scintillons. They showed that light is made when the cell's internal pH level drops. This happens when a tiny electrical signal, like a nerve impulse, causes protons to enter the scintillons. His lab found that scintillons are small sacs that hold the light-making chemicals.
Dinoflagellate Circadian Rhythms
Using Lingulodinium polyedrum as a model, Hastings helped us understand the tiny details of circadian rhythms. These rhythms control things like sleep and jet lag in humans. His lab showed that the dinoflagellates' glowing rhythm involves making and destroying proteins every day.
They found that the instructions for making these proteins (called mRNA) stay the same. This means the cell controls when to make the proteins, not when to get the instructions. They also found that certain chemicals can shift the timing of the circadian rhythm.
Other Glowing Systems
Early in his career, Hastings developed ways to measure the oxygen needed for light reactions in different creatures. These included bacteria, fungi, fireflies, and tiny crustaceans. This work showed that oxygen controls when fireflies flash.
His lab also made a big discovery about how some jellyfish-like animals glow green. They found that the blue light from one glowing molecule (called aequorin) is transferred to another molecule. This second molecule then emits green light. They called this molecule green fluorescent protein (GFP). Once scientists understood and could copy GFP, it became a very important tool. It is now used to study how genes work and how living things develop. Three scientists, Osamu Shimomura, Martin Chalfie, and Roger Y. Tsien, won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2008 for their work on GFP.
Death
John Woodland Hastings passed away from pulmonary fibrosis on August 6, 2014. He died in Lexington, Massachusetts.
