Karl Ernst von Baer – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Karl Ernst von Baer Born (1792-02-17)17 February 1792 Piep estate, Estonia, Russian Empire Died 16 November 1876(1876-11-16) (aged84) Dorpat, Russian Empire Citizenship Russian Empire Nationality Estonian (Estlnder)[1][2][3] Fields Biology, embryology, geology, meteorology, geography Institutions Imperial University of Dorpat, University of Knigsberg, Russian Academy of Sciences, Russian Geographical Society Alma mater Imperial University of Dorpat Knownfor The discovery of the mammal egg cell; exploring European Russia and Scandinavia

Karl Ernst Ritter von Baer, Edler von Huthorn (Russian: ), 28 February[O.S. 17 February]1792 28 November[O.S. 16 November]1876 was an Estonian scientist and explorer. Baer is also known in Russia as Karl Maksimovich Baer (Russian: ).

Baer was a naturalist, biologist, geologist, meteorologist, geographer and a founding father of embryology. He was an explorer of European Russia and Scandinavia. He was a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, a co-founder of the Russian Geographical Society and the first President of the Russian Entomological Society, making him a distinguished Baltic German scientist.

Karl Ernst von Baer was born into a Baltic German noble family in the Piep estate, Kreis Jerwen, Governorate of Estonia (in present-day Lne-Viru County, Estonia), as a Knight by birthright. He spent his early childhood at Lasila manor, Estonia.[4][1][2][3] Many of his ancestors had come from Westphalia. He was educated at the Knight and Cathedral School in Reval (Tallinn) and the Imperial University of Dorpat (Tartu), each of which he found lacking in quality education. In 1812, during his tenure at the university, he was sent to Riga to aid the city after Napoleon's armies had laid siege to it. As he attempted to help the sick and wounded, he realized that his education at Dorpat had been inadequate, and upon his graduation he notified his father that he would need to go abroad to "finish" his education. In his autobiography his discontent with his education at Dorpat inspired him to write a lengthy appraisal of education in general, a summary that dominated the content of the book. After leaving Tartu, he continued his education in Berlin, Vienna, and Wrzburg where Ignaz Dllinger introduced him to the new field of embryology.

In 1817, he became a professor at Knigsberg University (Kaliningrad) and full professor of zoology in 1821, and of anatomy in 1826. In 1829 he taught briefly in St. Petersburg, but returned to Knigsberg. In 1834 Baer moved back to St Petersburg and joined the St Petersburg Academy of Sciences, first in zoology (183446) and then in comparative anatomy and physiology (184662). His interests while there were anatomy, ichthyology, ethnography, anthropology and geography. While embryology had kept his attention in Knigsberg, then in Russia von Baer engaged in a large deal of field research, including the exploration of the island Novaya Zemlya. The last years of his life (186776) were spent in Dorpat, where he became a leading critic of Charles Darwin.[5]

von Baer studied the embryonic development of animals, discovering the blastula stage of development and the notochord. Together with Heinz Christian Pander and based on the work by Caspar Friedrich Wolff he described the germ layer theory of development (ectoderm, mesoderm, and endoderm) as a principle in a variety of species, laying the foundation for comparative embryology in the book ber Entwickelungsgeschichte der Thiere (1828). In 1826 Baer discovered the mammalian ovum. The first human ovum was described by Edgar Allen in 1928. In 1827 he completed research Ovi Mammalium et Hominis genesi for Saint-Petersburg's Academy of Science (published at Leipzig[7][8]) and established that mammals develop from eggs.

He formulated what became known as Baer's laws of embryology:

The term Baer's law is also applied to the unconfirmed proposition that in the northern hemisphere, erosion occurs mostly on the right banks of rivers, and in the southern hemisphere on the left banks. In its more thorough formulation, which Baer never formulated himself, the erosion of rivers depends on the direction of flow as well. For example, in the northern hemisphere a river flowing from South to North will according to the theory erode on its right bank, while in the same hemisphere a river flowing North to South will erode on its left, due to the Coriolis Effect.[9]

Baer was interested in the Northern part of Russia and explored Novaya Zemlya, in 1837 collecting biological specimens. Other travels led him to the Caspian Sea, the North Cape, and Lapland. He was one of the founders of the Russian Geographical Society.[citation needed]

He was a pioneer in studying biological time the perception of time in different organisms.

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Karl Ernst von Baer - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia