Wang Shi, 6 years younger than another founder, German biologist Schleiden, was born in a goldsmith's family in Noyce, Germany on 18 10. When I was a child, Wang Shi was a typical good boy in the eyes of his parents, because he had good conduct and worked hard. After graduating from high school, his parents want him to study theology and become a priest in the future. However, Wang Shi entered the medical school of Bonn University against his parents' wishes.
The university gave Wang Shi more free time, but he didn't want to waste any time. Whenever he has time, he listens to Professor Johannes Maitreya's physiology and works as a temporary assistant in Maitreya's laboratory. After graduating from college, Wang Shi went to Wü rzburg to study clinical medicine. Two years later, Wang Shi returned to Berlin University to study for a doctor of medicine. At the age of 24, Wang Shi received a doctor's degree in medicine and officially became Maitreya's assistant. Under the guidance of Maitreya, Wang Shi embarked on the road of scientific research.
After working as an assistant for a year, Wang Shi left Maitreya Laboratory and found a job in Berlin Anatomy Museum. Here, he met Schleiden. Although their personalities and experiences are quite different, their common interests and sincere feelings made them hit it off and established a profound friendship from then on.
Soon after, Wang Shi found that the fermentation of living yeast cells has the characteristics of life activity in the study of fermentation process, which is also the origin of the word "metabolism". Before publishing this great discovery paper, Wang Shi thought that this great discovery would definitely cause a great sensation. On the contrary, with this discovery, Wang Shi was attacked by the scientific community. It was not until more than ten years later that Pasteur's research on fermentation was successful that Wang Shi's point of view was recognized.
When it comes to the cell theory founded by Wang Shi, we have to mention another founder, Schleiden. Before the appearance of microscope, after years of observation and research on plant tissue structure, Schleiden thought that cells were the basic components of any plant structure. Lower plants are composed of single cells, while higher plants are composed of many cells. 1838, he published a famous article "Botany" and put forward this view.
In June of the same year, 65438+ 10, Wang Shi was deeply inspired when he talked about plant cells in Schleiden. /kloc-0 published the famous Microscopic Study on the Consistency between the Structure and Growth of Animals and Plants in June, 939, which systematically expounded the most important viewpoint in modern biology for the first time-animals and plants are all composed of cells. At the same time, Schleiden also put forward this viewpoint, which laid the foundation for him and Schleiden to establish the cell theory.
Wang Shi's cell theory was quickly accepted by people after it was published, and its mistakes were quickly corrected by later generations. However, his fermentation research results were strongly criticized by chemists Eustu von Justus von Liebig and Friedrich W?hler. Wang Shi had to leave Berlin with great controversy and become a professor of anatomy at Catholic University of Leuven.
Compared with Schleiden who insisted on heresy, Wang Shi seems to be a timid, introverted and even too pious person. In Belgium, he became more cautious about his research and did not publish his research results easily, but it is worth mentioning that he became interested in machinery here and invented some equipment beneficial to the mining industry. From 65438 to 0848, Wang Shi left the Catholic University of Leuven and became a professor of anatomy at the University of Liege. Six years later, he published his anatomy book "Human Anatomy". 1858 Professor of Physiology, University of Liege. But unfortunately, Wang Shi's research on physiology has basically ended. 1882 65438+1October 1 1, Wang Shi died of a stroke in Cologne.
The cell theory put forward by Wang Shi has extended the view that the basic structure of plants is cells to the animal kingdom, and found the universal law of the development of animals and plants, which is of epoch-making significance in the history of biology. Therefore, he is called one of the founders of cell theory.