Experiments of the brothers Hans and Edward Buchner. great german scientists
Eduard Buchner (German: Eduard Buchner) is a German chemist and biochemist. Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1907) "for his research work in biological chemistry and the discovery of extracellular fermentation."
Eduard Buchner was born on May 20, 1860 in Munich into a family of hereditary scientists who came from Bavarian Swabia. His father, Ernst Buchner, was a professor of forensic medicine, organizer and editor of the Munich Medical Weekly. The large scientific organizational workload did not prevent him, however, from being married three times. From the third marriage to Frederick Martin, the daughter of a cashier, two sons were born - Hans in 1850 and Eduard.
After the death of his father, his older brother Hans, who later became a well-known hygienist and epidemiologist, according to Edward, "made it impossible for me to get an education." Exceptional friendship, mutual support and scientific cooperation united the brothers throughout their lives.
After graduating from the Munich Real Gymnasium in 1877, Eduard Buchner served as a volunteer in the Field Artillery Regiment. But he was fascinated by research work.
Buchner entered the Technical University of Munich, where he began to study chemistry. However, financial difficulties forced him to leave his studies and work for four years in canneries in Munich and Mombach. Although the work forced them to interrupt their studies, it introduced them to the process of alcoholic fermentation, as a result of which sugar, under the action of yeast, breaks down into alcohol and carbon dioxide.
Thanks to the help of his brother Hans Buchner was able to resume his studies in 1884. He then received a three-year scholarship and studied chemistry with Adolf von Bayer at the University of Munich and botany with Carl von Nägel at the Institute of Botany.
During these years, Buchner met G. Peschmann and T. Curtius. The latter, who soon became Buchner's closest friend and colleague, invited him for one semester to Erlanger, to the chemical laboratory, the head of which he became at the suggestion of O. Fischer. The deep influence of Curtius was reflected in the fact that it was from him that Buchner took love and skills for the painstaking work of the researcher.
In 1888 Buchner became a doctor, and in 1891 he took the position of Privatdozent at the University of Munich. In 1893 Buchner, at the invitation of Curtius, followed him to Kiel, where in 1895 he became a professor. A year later, Peschmann invited him to take the vacant position of an extraordinary professor at the University of Tübingen, where Buchner conducted and published in 1897 the work "Alcoholic fermentation without yeast cells."
The subsequent development of this topic at the Berlin Agricultural School, where in 1898 he was invited to the post of professor of general chemistry, quickly brought Buchner recognition in the scientific world. In 1905 he was awarded the J. Liebig gold medal awarded by the Society of German Chemists.
In 1907, Eduard Buchner was awarded the Nobel Prize "For biochemical research and for the discovery of cell-free fermentation."
Intense research activity, frequent travels, a life rich in hobbies, apparently, were the reason that Buchner, only at the age of 40 in 1900, married Lotte Stahl, the daughter of the Tübingen mathematician. From this marriage he had two sons and a daughter.
Buchner was a man of exceptionally lively and cordial disposition. These character traits invariably attracted numerous and loyal friends to him, contributed to the creation of a joyful and happy atmosphere in his family. A keen interest in politics (Buchner was an ardent supporter of Bismarck) was combined with a love for the fine arts.
In his youth, an orthodox commitment to Catholicism, but at the age of 40 a completely conscious transition to Protestantism, a passionate passion for hunting and mountaineering (he overcame about a hundred mountain peaks!) - all this was imbued with a special love for the struggle with difficulties, a penchant for adventure. Exceptional memory and vivid imagination, courage, cordiality - these are the distinguishing features of Buchner, preserved in the memory of his friends and colleagues.
When the First World War began, 54-year-old captain Eduard Buchner joined the army on August 11, 1914. Already in December, he was awarded the Iron Cross, and in January 1916 he was promoted to the rank of major. In February, Buchner was called from the front to Würzburg to continue his scientific and teaching activities, but in June 1917 he returned to the front again. On August 11, in Romania (near Focsani), Buchner was mortally wounded. He died on August 12, 1917 and was buried there in the fraternal cemetery.
(1860 - 1917)
The German chemist Eduard Buchner was born on May 20, 1860 in Munich in the family of a professor of forensic medicine and gynecology at the University of Munich.
After graduating from a real gymnasium in Munich in 1877, he entered the Technical University of Munich, where he studied chemistry. Financial difficulties forced him to interrupt his studies for four years, during which he had to work in canneries, where he got acquainted with the process of alcoholic fermentation, as a result of which sugar, under the action of yeast, breaks down into alcohol and carbon dioxide.
In 1884, he resumed his studies in chemistry at the University of Munich and studied botany at the Institute of Botany, where the scientist's brother Hans Buchner worked, who eventually became a well-known specialist in hygiene and bacteriology. Buchner began research on the process of alcoholic fermentation under his direction.
1888 Buchner received his doctorate, and two years later became Bayer's assistant. In 1891, he was appointed Privatdozent at the University of Munich, founded a small laboratory, where he continued his research in the field of fermentation chemistry. In 1895 he became a professor at the University of Kiel, in 1898 he became a professor of general chemistry at the Higher Agricultural School in Berlin and director of the Institute for the Industrial Application of Fermentation Processes.
1893 Buchner began to search for active substances that promote the fermentation process. Buchner's 1897 paper, On Alcoholic Fermentation without the Involvement of Yeast Cells, caused controversy among scientists, and in the following years Buchner spent a lot of time collecting facts to confirm his theory.
1907 Buchner was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his research work in biological chemistry and the discovery of extracellular fermentation."
Two years after receiving the Nobel Prize, Buchner went to work at the University of Breslau, where he was head of the Department of Physiological Chemistry, and in 1911, at the University of Würzburg.
With the outbreak of World War I, Buchner volunteered for military service. 1917, while working as a medical major in a field hospital in Romania, was wounded by shrapnel and died in Focsani on 13 August.
Edward Buchner(1860-1917) began research on the process of alcoholic fermentation under the guidance of his scientist brother, Hans Buchner.
In 1885 he published his the first article on the effect of oxygen on the fermentation process. Done E. Buchner experiments refuted the prevailing point of view at that time, which was held by and Louis Pasteur that fermentation cannot take place in the presence of oxygen.
In 1893, when Edward Buchner began the search for active substances that promote fermentation, two competing theories of fermentation prevailed. According to mechanistic theory, yeast, constantly decomposing to a liquid state, creates a chemical stress that causes the sugar molecules to decompose. In accordance with this point of view, alcoholic fermentation was, although complex, but, in general, a common chemical reaction. This theory was objected to by the vitalists, who, like Louis Pasteur, believed that living cells contain some kind of vital substance, which is “responsible” for fermentation. According to them, without some "vital", although not yet found, component in living cells, chemicals alone could not cause the fermentation process. Despite the fact that proponents of the mechanistic theory have shown that substances found in living cells can be synthesized, no one has yet been able to isolate a substance that promotes fermentation or cause this process in non-living substances.
Encouraged by his brother Edward Buchner decided to find the active substance by obtaining pure samples of the internal fluid of yeast cells. Using the method suggested by his brother's assistant Martin Gan, he ground the yeast together with sand and earth in a mortar, thus avoiding the ravages of high temperatures and the use of solvents that distorted the results obtained by his predecessors. The cellular substance squeezed out in gauze under pressure released liquid. He suggested that this liquid is capable of causing fermentation. Later, however, when he and his assistant Martin Gan I tried to preserve this liquid by adding a concentrated solution of sucrose, carbon dioxide was released. This was amazing, because even though the yeast cells were dead, it was clear that something in the liquid they secreted caused 
fermentation. Edward Buchner put forward the hypothesis that the active substance is an enzyme, or an enzyme, which he called zymaso. His discovery meant that fermentation occurs as a result of the chemical activity of the enzyme both inside and outside the yeast cell, and not under the influence of the so-called life force.
Published in 1897, the work " About alcoholic fermentation without the participation of yeast cells” caused controversy among his fellow scientists, and in subsequent years Edward Buchner spent a lot of time collecting facts to support his theory.
In 1902, he published another 15-page paper explaining and defending this work of his, as well as several others presenting the results of his research into the chemical effects of yeast on milk sugar.
In 1907 Edward Buchner was awarded Nobel Prize in Chemistry"for his research work in biological chemistry and his discovery of extracellular fermentation."
Due to the death of King Oscar II of Sweden, the award ceremony was postponed, however, in a written submission on behalf of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences K. A. H. Merner summarized the conflicting views on the fermentation process, which were put an end to by Buchner research. “While fermentation was regarded as the expression of life,” wrote Merner, – there was little hope of being able to penetrate more deeply into the problem of the flow of this process. That's why "there was a sensation when Buchner managed to show that alcoholic fermentation can be caused by juice isolated from yeast cells that do not contain living cells ... Areas inaccessible until that time have now become the object of chemical research, and new, previously unseen prospects have opened up before chemical science.
In the Nobel Lecture Edward Buchner described his discoveries and paid tribute to his predecessors and colleagues. “We are becoming more and more convinced that plant and animal cells are like chemical factories,” he said, “where different products are produced in different shops. Enzymes in them act as controllers. Our knowledge of these most important parts of living matter is constantly increasing. And although we may still be far from the goal, we are moving closer to it step by step.”
Further development of the experiments of the Buchner brothers led to the study of the fermentation process by an English chemist Arthur Garden.
Some scientists still believed that fermentation occurred as a result of the action of a mysterious "life force" on a living cell, but by 1904 for A. Gardena it became obvious that fermentation is a set of chemical processes. To confirm his hypothesis, he obtained a zymase preparation and filtered it under high pressure through porous porcelain impregnated with gelatin. He discovered that the zymase enzyme consists of two components, one of which passes through such a filter, and the other does not. Arthur Garden also found that fermentation stops when he removes any component from the yeast extract. This was the first evidence that one component of an enzyme needed the presence of the other to function effectively. He left the name "zimaza" for one component, and the other component (or coenzyme) began to be called cosimase. Subsequently, he discovered that zymase is a protein, while cosimase is not a protein (a substance of non-protein nature).
In 1905 Arthur Garden made his second fundamental discovery: the fermentation process requires the presence of phosphate, consisting of one phosphorus atom and four oxygen atoms. He noted that the rate of breakdown of the sugar molecule and the formation of carbon dioxide and alcohol slowly falls over time. However, when he added phosphate to the solution, fermentation activity increased dramatically. Based on the observational data, Garden concluded that phosphate molecules bind to sugar molecules, creating conditions for enzymatic induction of fermentation. Moreover, he discovered that phosphate, separating from the reaction products, remains free as a result of a complex chain of transformations.
In 1929 to Arthur Garden together with Hans von Euler-Helpin was awarded Nobel Prize in Chemistry « for his research on sugar fermentation and fermentation enzymes."
Thanks to the help of his brother Hans B. was able in 1884 to resume classes. Soon after, he received a three-year scholarship. He studied chemistry with Adolf von Bayer at the University of Munich and botany with Carl von Nägel at the Institute of Botany. The scientist's brother, Hans Buchner, who later became a well-known specialist in hygiene and bacteriology, worked at this institute. B. began research on the process of alcoholic fermentation under his leadership. In 1885 he published his first article on the effect of oxygen on the fermentation process. Done B. experiments refuted the prevailing point of view at that time, which was held by Louis Pasteur, that fermentation cannot take place in the presence of oxygen.
In 1888, Mr.. B. received his doctorate, and two years later, after a short period spent in Erlangen, became Bayer's assistant. In 1891, Mr.. B. was appointed Privatdozent (external lecturer) at the University of Munich. On private donations provided by Bayer, B. founded a small laboratory, where he continued his research in the field of fermentation chemistry. In 1893 he left Munich and headed the section of analytical chemistry at the University of Kiel, and in 1895 he became a professor at this university. The following year, B. taught analytical chemistry and pharmacology at the University of Tübingen. In 1898, he was elected professor of general chemistry at the Higher Agricultural School in Berlin and appointed director of the Institute for the Industrial Application of Fermentation Processes.
In 1893, when B. began searching for active substances that promote fermentation, two competing theories of fermentation prevailed. According to the mechanistic theory, yeast, constantly decomposing to a liquid state, creates a chemical stress that causes the sugar molecules to decompose. In accordance with this point of view, alcoholic fermentation was, although complex, but, in general, a common chemical reaction. This theory was objected to by the vitalists, who, like Louis Pasteur, believed that living cells contained a certain vital substance that was "responsible" for fermentation. According to them, without some "vital", although not yet found, component in living cells, chemicals alone could not cause the fermentation process. Despite the fact that proponents of the mechanistic theory have shown that substances found in living cells can be synthesized, no one has yet been able to isolate a substance that promotes fermentation or cause this process in non-living substances.
Encouraged by his brother, B. decided to find the active substance by obtaining pure samples of the internal fluid of yeast cells. Using the method proposed by his brother's assistant Martin Gan, B. crushed yeast in a mortar along with sand and earth, thus avoiding the ravages of high temperatures and not using solvents that distorted the results obtained by his predecessors. The cellular substance squeezed out in gauze under pressure released liquid. B. suggested that this liquid is capable of causing fermentation. Later, however, when he and Hahn tried to preserve this liquid by adding a concentrated solution of sucrose, carbon dioxide was released. This was amazing, because even though the yeast cells were dead, it was clear that something in the liquid they excreted had caused the fermentation. B. hypothesized that the active substance is an enzyme, or an enzyme, which he called zymase. His discovery meant that fermentation occurs as a result of the chemical activity of the enzyme both inside and outside the yeast cell, and not under the influence of the so-called life force.
Published in 1897, Mr.. B. "About alcoholic fermentation without yeast cells" ("On Alcoholic Fermentation without Yeast Cells") caused controversy among his fellow scientists, and in subsequent years, B. spent a lot of time collecting facts to support his theories. In 1902, he published another 15-page paper explaining and defending this work of his, as well as several others presenting the results of his research into the chemical effects of yeast on milk sugar.
In 1907, Mr.. B. was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his research work on biological chemistry and the discovery of extracellular fermentation." Due to the death of King Oscar II of Sweden, the award ceremony was postponed, but in a written submission on behalf of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, K. A. X. Merner summarized the conflicting views on the fermentation process, which were put an end to B. research. “As long as fermentation was regarded as the expression of life,” wrote Merner, “there was little hope of being able to penetrate more deeply into the problem of the course of this process.” That is why “there was a sensation when B. managed to show that alcoholic fermentation can be caused by juice isolated from yeast cells that do not contain living cells ... Areas inaccessible until that time have now become the object of chemical research, and new ones have opened up before chemical science, previously unseen prospects.
In the Nobel lecture B. described his discoveries and paid tribute to his predecessors and colleagues. “We are becoming more and more convinced that plant and animal cells are like chemical factories,” he said, “where different products are produced in different shops. Enzymes in them act as controllers. Our knowledge of these most important parts of living matter is constantly increasing. And although we may still be far from the goal, we are moving closer to it step by step.”
Two years after receiving the Nobel Prize B. went to work at the University of Breslau (now Wroclaw, Poland), where he became head of the Department of Physiological Chemistry. His last academic appointment was an appointment at the University of Würzburg in 1911. With the outbreak of World War I B. voluntarily went into military service. In 1917, while serving as a medical major in a field hospital in Romania, he was wounded by shrapnel and died in Focsani on 13 August, outliving his wife, Lota (Stahl) Buchner, daughter of a mathematician from Tübingen. From this marriage, concluded in 1900, they had two sons and a daughter.
The German chemist Eduard Buchner was born in Munich, the son of Ernst Buchner, a professor of forensic medicine and gynecology at the University of Munich, and Frederika (Martin) Buchner, the daughter of an employee of the Royal Treasury. After his father's death in 1872, Edward was educated by his elder brother Hans. After graduating from a real gymnasium in Munich in 1877, Buchner served for a short time in the field artillery unit of the German army before he entered the Technical University of Munich, where he began to study chemistry. However, financial difficulties forced him to leave his studies and work for four years in canneries in Munich and Mombach. Although the work forced them to interrupt their studies, it introduced them to the process of alcoholic fermentation, as a result of which sugar, under the action of yeast, breaks down into alcohol and carbon dioxide.
Thanks to the help of his brother Hans Buchner was able to resume his studies in 1884. Soon after, he received a three-year scholarship. He studied chemistry with Adolf von Bayer at the University of Munich and botany with Carl von Nägel at the Institute of Botany. The scientist's brother, Hans Buchner, who later became a well-known specialist in hygiene and bacteriology, worked at this institute. Buchner began research on the process of alcoholic fermentation under his direction. In 1885 he published his first article on the effect of oxygen on the fermentation process. Buchner's experiments refuted the prevailing view of the time, which was also held by Louis Pasteur, that fermentation cannot take place in the presence of oxygen.
In 1888 Buchner received his doctorate, and two years later, after a short period in Erlangen, he became Bayer's assistant. In 1891, Buchner was appointed Privatdozent (external lecturer) at the University of Munich. With private donations provided by Bayer, Buchner established a small laboratory where he continued his research on the chemistry of fermentation. In 1893 he left Munich and headed the section of analytical chemistry at the University of Kiel, and in 1895 he became a professor at this university. The following year, Buchner taught analytical chemistry and pharmacology at the University of Tübingen. In 1898, he was elected professor of general chemistry at the Higher Agricultural School in Berlin and appointed director of the Institute for the Industrial Application of Fermentation Processes.
In 1893, when Buchner began searching for fermentation actives, two competing theories of fermentation prevailed. According to the mechanistic theory, yeast, constantly decomposing to a liquid state, creates a chemical stress that causes the sugar molecules to decompose. In accordance with this point of view, alcoholic fermentation was, although complex, but, in general, a common chemical reaction. This theory was objected to by vitalists, who, like Louis Pasteur, believed that living cells contained some kind of vital substance, which was "responsible" for fermentation. According to them, without some "vital", although not yet found, component in living cells, chemicals alone could not cause the fermentation process. Despite the fact that proponents of the mechanistic theory have shown that substances found in living cells can be synthesized, no one has yet been able to isolate a substance that promotes fermentation or cause this process in non-living substances.
Encouraged by his brother, Buchner decided to find the active substance by obtaining pure samples of the internal fluid of yeast cells. Using a method suggested by his brother's assistant Martin Hahn, Buchner ground the yeast together with sand and earth in a mortar, thus avoiding the ravages of high temperatures and the use of solvents that distorted the results obtained by his predecessors. The cellular substance squeezed out in gauze under pressure released liquid. Buchner suggested that this liquid could cause fermentation. Later, however, when he and Hahn tried to preserve this liquid by adding a concentrated solution of sucrose, carbon dioxide was released. This was amazing, because even though the yeast cells were dead, it was clear that something in the liquid they excreted had caused the fermentation. Buchner hypothesized that the active substance was an enzyme, or enzyme, which he called zymase. His discovery meant that fermentation occurs as a result of the chemical activity of the enzyme both inside and outside the yeast cell, and not under the influence of the so-called life force. Published in 1897, Buchner's On Alcoholic Fermentation Without the Involvement of Yeast Cells caused controversy among his fellow scientists, and in the following years Buchner spent considerable time gathering evidence to support his theory. In 1902, he published another 15-page paper explaining and defending this work of his, as well as several others presenting the results of his research into the chemical effects of yeast on milk sugar.
In 1907, Buchner was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his research work in biological chemistry and the discovery of extracellular fermentation." Due to the death of King Oscar II of Sweden, the award ceremony was postponed, but in a written submission on behalf of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, K. A. X. Merner summarized the conflicting views on the fermentation process that Buchner's research put an end to. “As long as fermentation was regarded as the expression of life,” wrote Merner, “there was little hope of being able to penetrate more deeply into the problem of the course of this process.” That is why “a sensation occurred when Buchner managed to show that alcoholic fermentation can be caused by juice isolated from yeast cells that do not contain living cells ... Areas inaccessible until that time have now become the object of chemical research, and new, previously unimaginable prospects.
In the Nobel lecture, Buchner described his discoveries and paid tribute to his predecessors and colleagues. “We are becoming more and more convinced that plant and animal cells are like chemical factories,” he said, “where different products are produced in different shops. Enzymes in them act as controllers. Our knowledge of these most important parts of living matter is constantly increasing. And although we may still be far from the goal, we are moving closer to it step by step.”
Two years after receiving the Nobel Prize, Buchner went to work at the University of Breslau (now Wroclaw, Poland), where he became head of the Department of Physiological Chemistry. His last academic appointment was to the University of Würzburg in 1911. With the outbreak of World War I, Buchner volunteered for military service. In 1917, while serving as a medical major in a field hospital in Romania, he was wounded by shrapnel and died in Focsani on 13 August, outliving his wife, Lota (Stahl) Buchner, daughter of a mathematician from Tübingen. From this marriage, concluded in 1900, they had two sons and a daughter.
