- 5th century B.C. —
Hippocrates, father of medicine
- 4th century B.C. — Aristotle, greatest biologist of antiquity
- 1400-1650 — Renaissance: revival of interest in direct observation,
— —
especially in botany, anatomy, and medicine
- 1600s — — Descartes, father of experimental physiology
- 1605 — — Harvey demonstrates circulation of the blood
- 1666 — — Redi disproves spontaneous generation of flies
- 1600-1800 – Age of exploration - discovery of many new organisms
- c.1700 — — Leeuwenhoek invents first practical microscope
- mid-1700s – Linnaeus, father of taxonomy
- 1780s — — Galvani's "animal electricity" - start of nerve physiology
- 1790s — — Priestley's work on photosynthesis
- 1830-1845 – Cell theory (Schleiden, Schwann, Virchow)
- 1859 — Darwin's Origin of Species - evolution by natural selection
- 1860s — Pasteur explains fermentation, discovers many new bacteria
- 1865 — Mendel - father of genetics (unrecognized until 1900)
- 1880s — Koch's postulates establish the basis for modern microbiology
- 1902 — Sutton proposes chromosomal theory of heredity
- 1910 — Morgan begins work with fruit flies and discovers sex linkage
- 1912 — Bridges and Sturtevant develop genetic mapping technique
- 1940s — Modern synthetic theory of evolution
- 1953 — Watson and Crick describe the DNA double helix
- 1968 — Genetic code deciphered
- 1980s — Techniques for gene sequencing developed
- 2003 — Human genome sequence announced
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