Joseph Reynolds Green facts for kids

Joseph Reynolds Green (1848-1914) was a smart English scientist. He studied plants (a botanist), how living things work (a physiologist), and chemicals (a chemist). His special work on plant enzymes helped create a whole new science called biochemistry, which is about the chemistry of living things. He taught about plants at the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain and also gave lectures at the University of Liverpool and Downing College, Cambridge. In 1895, he became a Fellow of the Royal Society, which is a very important science group.

Joseph Green's Early Life

Joseph Reynolds Green was born on December 3, 1848, in Stowmarket, Suffolk, England. His father was Daniel Green. Joseph went to a private school and later attended Bedford Modern School.

When he was younger, Joseph didn't have much science teaching at school. Because of this, he and two friends, William Hillhouse and Edward Mann Langley, decided to learn science on their own. They rented a room in their town just to do chemistry experiments! This shows how much they loved science. Their hard work helped all three of them get scholarships to Trinity College, Cambridge, a famous university. They also got extra help from a local doctor and nature expert, Dr. Samuel Hoppus Adams. Before going to Cambridge, Joseph first worked in business and studied part-time to earn a science degree from the University of London.

Joseph Green's Career and Discoveries

Joseph Green started studying at Trinity College in 1881. He did very well in his science studies, getting top grades in both botany (plants) and animal morphology (animal shapes and structures). For a while, he was interested in both subjects.

In 1885, he became a university demonstrator in physiology. He researched how blood clots and found that calcium was needed for this process. But in 1887, he became a Professor of Botany at the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain. This job made him focus more on plants.

Green believed that studying how plants work (called plant physiology) was more important than just naming and classifying them (called plant taxonomy). He did important research on plant enzymes and the protein found in seeds. His way of looking at botany was very new and helped lead to the development of biochemistry, which is now a huge field of science. His work is seen as a key step in the beginning of this science.

Joseph Green received the Rollaston Prize from the University of Oxford in 1890. He earned his Doctor of Science degree in 1894. In 1895, he was chosen as a Fellow of the Royal Society, a big honor for scientists. From 1902, he was also a Fellow and Lecturer at Downing College, Cambridge.

In 1907, he left his job at the Pharmaceutical Society because he wasn't feeling well. He took a less demanding job as the Hartley Lecturer in Botany at Liverpool University. Joseph Green wrote many books about plants, from simple guides to detailed academic studies and histories of botany.

Joseph Green was also a Deacon at the Emmanuel United Reformed Church in Cambridge. He passed away on June 3, 1914.