Kenneth Callow facts for kids

Robert Kenneth Callow (born February 15, 1901 – died 1983) was a British biochemist. A biochemist studies the chemistry of living things. He was also a Fellow of the Royal Society, which is a big honor for scientists.

Kenneth Callow worked at the National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR) in England. There, he studied steroids, which are important natural chemicals in the body. He helped find and understand vitamin D. He also helped create cortisone, a medicine, from natural sources. After he retired in 1966, he studied insect chemicals called pheromones at Rothamsted Experimental Station.

Early Life and School

Kenneth Callow was born on February 15, 1901, in Goring-on-Thames, England. His father was an electrical engineer. Kenneth went to the City of London School from 1911 to 1919. He received a scholarship, which helped him continue his studies after his father passed away in 1912.

In 1919, he went to Christ Church, Oxford University to study chemistry. After working at British Celanese for a few years, he returned to Oxford. He studied chemicals called alkaloids and tried to find a toxic one called taxine from yew trees. He finished his D.Phil. degree in 1929.

Discovering Vitamin D

In 1929, Kenneth Callow was asked to join a team at NIMR to work on vitamin D. At that time, scientists didn't know what vitamin D looked like or how steroids were structured.

A group of scientists, including J.B.S. Haldane and Dorothy Crowfoot, met to discuss possible structures. Using a method called X-ray crystallography, they found that sterol molecules were flat. This was different from what scientists thought before.

In 1932, Otto Rosenheim and Harold King suggested new structures for sterols. This helped the team, which included Bourdillon, Rosenheim, King, and Callow, to find and understand vitamin D. The Medical Research Council (MRC) had a rule not to patent discoveries. They believed that medical research should be free for everyone to use.

The vitamin D team included different kinds of scientists: a physical chemist, a doctor, chemists, and biologists. They worked together to make this important discovery.

Working with Others

Kenneth Callow also helped with other problems related to vitamin D. For example, he looked into why some cereals might cause rickets, a bone disease. He found that these cereals stopped the body from taking in enough calcium. He worked with Hilda Bruce on this.

He also worked with Alan Parkes and C.W. Emmens on how bodies reproduce. In the 1930s, Callow became interested in how sex hormones work and finding steroids in urine.

War Service (1940–1945)

Even though his science job was important, Kenneth Callow joined the Royal Air Force in 1940. He became an armaments officer. This meant he helped with weapons. He spent much of the war in India, where he helped defuse unexploded bombs. He was recognized for his bravery in helping at Datta Khel.

Later in the war, he worked for a secret organization called the Inter-Services Research Bureau. This was a cover name for Special Operations Executive (SOE). SOE was responsible for secret missions in enemy areas. Callow used his chemistry knowledge to help develop unusual equipment for these missions.

Making Cortisone Medicine

After the war, in 1945, Callow returned to NIMR. He worked with John Cornforth to find an easier way to make cortisone. Cortisone is a medicine used to treat many conditions, like inflammation. At that time, making cortisone was very difficult and expensive.

They looked for natural sources to make cortisone. One idea was sarmentogenin, found in arrow poisons from Strophanthus seeds. Callow even went to Nigeria for six months with a botanist to collect these plants. They found that S. sarmentosus contained sarmentogenin, but it was hard to grow enough of it.

Another source was hecogenin from Agave sisalana, a plant from Mexico. This plant is grown in Kenya for its fibers, called sisal. Even though it was a less direct way to make cortisone, it was easier to get large amounts of hecogenin.

Glaxo Laboratories worked with Cornforth and Callow to create a way to make cortisone from sisal. This time, the work done by the NIMR staff was patented. The patent was sold to Glaxo Labs, allowing them to produce the medicine.

Kenneth Callow was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1958. This is a very high honor for scientists in the UK.

Honeybee Pheromones

Kenneth Callow became interested in "queen substance," a chemical made by the queen honeybee. He learned that this substance helps control how honeybees raise new queens. It also attracts male bees (drones) to the queen when she flies to mate.

In 1959, Callow found and named this substance as 9-oxodec-trans-2-enoic acid. This work made him interested in the chemistry of insects in general. After retiring from NIMR in 1966, he joined Rothamsted Experimental Station. He used a special machine called a mass spectrometer to study insect pheromones until 1971.

Other Work

Kenneth Callow was part of the editorial board for the Biochemical Journal from 1946 to 1953. He also led the Council of the Bee Research Association for several years.

Personal Life

In 1937, Kenneth Callow married Nancy Newman, who had helped him with his work. They had two children, John and "Mo" Callow.

Kenneth Callow passed away on April 12, 1983, in Maughold, Isle of Man. He had moved there in 1980 to learn more about his family's history on the island. His grandfather had even written a history book about the Isle of Man.