Karl Ernst von Baer
17304
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2008-07-05T09:23:02Z
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33566
fixed dates as per source, and used os/ns
[[Image:Baer Karl von 1792-1876.jpg|thumb|225px|right|Karl Ernst von Baer]]
'''Karl Ernst von Baer''' ({{OldStyleDate|28 February|1792|17 February}} - {{OldStyleDate|28 November|1876|16 November}}) was a [[Baltic German]] [[biologist]] and a founding father of [[embryology]].
[[Image:KarlErnstVonBaer.jpg|thumb|200px|right|Statue of Karl Ernst von Baer on [[Toome Hill]], [[Tartu]]. As a tradition, students wash the head of statue with champagne every [[Walpurgis Night]]<ref>[http://www.postimees.ee/180207/esileht/ak/245420.php Kõik algab munast]</ref>.]]
==Life==
Karl Ernst von Baer was born in [[Piibe]] manor ({{lang-de|Piep}}), Russia (now [[Estonia]]); many of his ancestors had come from [[Westphalia]]. A knight by birthright, his full name was ''Karl Ernst Ritter von Baer, Edler von Huthorn''. He was educated at the Cathedral School in [[Reval]] (Tallinn) and the [[University of Dorpat]] ([[Tartu]]). He continued his education in [[Berlin]], [[Vienna]], and Würzburg where Döllinger introduced him to the new field of [[embryology]].
In 1812, Baer was a volunteer in the war against [[Napoleon]]'s invasion, serving as doctor[http://www.booksite.ru/department/center/vel/iki/yel/udi/5.htm].
In 1817, he became a professor at [[Königsberg 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 Königsberg. In 1834 Baer moved back to St Petersburg and joined the [[St Petersburg Academy of Sciences]], first in zoology (1834-46) and then in [[comparative anatomy]] and [[physiology]] (1846-62). His interests while there were anatomy, [[ichthyology]], [[ethnography]], [[anthropology]] and [[geography]]. The last years of his life (1867-76) were spent in Dorpat (Tartu), where he became one of the leading critics of the theories of [[Charles Darwin]].
A statue honouring him can be found on [[Toome Hill]] (''Toomemägi'') in [[Tartu]]. The two [[estonian kroon|kroons]] (2 ''krooni'') Estonian banknote bears his portrait.
==Contributions==
[[Image:Vonbaer.jpg|thumb|230px|left|Karl Ernst von Baer.]]
===Embryology===
He studied the embryonal 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 ''Über Entwickelungsgeschichte der Thiere'' (1828). In [[1826]] Baer discovered the mammalian [[ovum]]. The first human ovum was described by Allen in [[1928]].(1) In [[1827]] he completed research "Ovi Mammalium et Hominis genesi" for Saint-Petersburg's Academy of Science (published at Leipzig[http://safety.spbstu.ru/book/hrono/hrono/biograf/bio_b/ber_karl.html][http://www.allpersona.ru/people/72032.html]) and established that mammals develop from eggs.
===Baer's laws (embryology)===
He formulated what would later be called the ''Baer's laws'' for embryology:
# The general characters of the group to which an embryo belongs appear in development earlier than the special characters.
# The less general structural relations are formed after the more general, and so on, until the most specific appear.
# The embryo of any given form, instead of passing through the state of other definite forms, on the contrary, separates itself from them.
# Fundamentally the embryo of a higher animal form never resembles the adult of another animal form, but only its embryo.
{{seealso|Recapitulation theory}}
[[Image:KEvonBaer.jpg|thumb|In old age]]
===Anthropology===
At St Petersburg, Baer established an extensive skull collection and became a proponent and contributor to the (pseudo)science of [[craniology]].
=== Baer's law (geology) ===
The term ''[[Baer's law]]'' also refers to the proposition that in the [[northern hemisphere]], [[erosion]] occurs mostly on the right banks of rivers, and in the [[southern hemisphere]] on the left banks.
===Explorer===
Baer was interested in the Northern part of Russia and explored [[Novaya Zemlya]] in 1837 collecting biologic specimen. Other travels led him to the [[Caspian Sea]], the [[North Cape]], and [[Sápmi (area)|Lapland]]. He was a founder and the first president of the [[Russian Geographical Society]].
===Entomology===
Baer contributed to studies in [[entomology]] and was a cofounder of the [[Russian Entomological Society]].
===Meteorology===
[[Taymyr Gulf|Baer Island]] in the Kara Sea was named after Karl Ernst von Baer for his important contributions to the research of Arctic meteorology between 1830 and 1840.<ref>http://www.meteohistory.org/2004polling_preprints/docs/abstracts/tammiksaar_abstract.pdf</ref>
===Subjective biology===
Baer was a pioneer in studying biological time - the perception of time in different organisms. This approach was further developed by [[Jakob von Uexküll]].
==References==
<references />
# Wood C, Trounson A. ''Clinical In Vitro Fertilization''. Springer-Verlag, Berlin 1984, Page 6.
# [http://www.whonamedit.com/ Medical eponyms]
# Baer, K E v. "Über ein allgemeines Gesetz in der Gestaltung der Flußbetten", ''Kaspische Studien'', 1860, VIII, S. 1–6.
==External links==
* [http://www.mois.ee/jarva/piibe.shtml Overview of Piibe (Piep) manor in Estonian Manors Portal (with a picture of a memorial stone)]
* [http://www.zbi.ee/baer/biography.htm Short biography of K.E.v.Baer]
* [http://www.bankofestonia.info/pub/en/yldine/pangatahed/pangatahed/_2.html Estonian banknotes]
*[http://www.nndb.com/people/026/000100723/ NNDB Profile of K.E.v.Baer]
==Further reading==
* {{cite encyclopedia
| last = Oppenheimer
| first = Jane
| title = Baer, Karl Ernst von
| encyclopedia = [[Dictionary of Scientific Biography]]
| volume = 1
| pages = 385-389
| publisher = Charles Scribner's Sons
| location = New York
| date = 1970
| isbn = 0684101149
}}
== Baer's works ==
* [[Karl Ernst von Baer]], Grigoriĭ Petrovich Gelʹmersen. "Beiträge zur Kenntniss des russischen Reiches und der angränzenden Länder Asiens". Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1839. [http://books.google.com/books?id=uN0GAAAAYAAJ On Google Books] {{de icon}}
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[[Category:1792 births]]
[[Category:1876 deaths]]
[[Category:Baltic Germans]]
[[Category:German biologists]]
[[Category:Russian biologists]]
[[Category:Estonian biologists]]
[[Category:German entomologists]]
[[Category:Members of the Russian Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Copley Medal]]
[[Category:Novaya Zemlya]]
[[Category:Explorers of the Arctic]]
[[Category:University of Tartu alumni]]
[[Category:People from the Governorate of Estonia]]
[[Category:People from Saint Petersburg]]
[[Category:People from Tartu]]
[[Category:University of Königsberg faculty]]
[[Category:German people of the Napoleonic Wars]]
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