Herman Nilsson-Ehle

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Herman Nilsson-Ehle

Nils Herman Nilsson-Ehle (born February 12, 1873 in Skurup , † December 29, 1949 in Lund ) was a Swedish biologist . He discovered polygeny .

resume

Herman Nilsson-Ehle began in 1891 with the studies in biology at the University of Lund in Fredrik Wilhelm Christian Areschoug (1,830 to 1,908). In 1898/99 he took part in an expedition in Siberia . In 1909 he received his doctorate from Lund University . His dissertation deals with multifactorial inheritance in cereals. Then he was a lecturer in botany in Lund. From 1900 to 1915 he was in the Wheat and Oat Department of the Swedish Seed Association in Svalöv(Saatzuchtanstalt) works as an assistant. It was there that he made his main discoveries about polygenic inheritance. From 1910 to 1938 he was chairman of the Mendel Society. From 1915 to 1938 he held the chair for physiological botany and in 1917 for genetics at Lund University. In 1924 he was elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences . He was director of the Swedish Seed Association in Svalöv from 1925 to 1939.

After founding the Swedish Society for Racial Hygiene ( Svenska sällskapet för rashygien ) in 1909, Nilsson-Ehle was part of a network of people who campaigned for the establishment of a State Institute for Racial Biology (founded in 1922) and a law for “ eugenic sterilization ”. In 1937, Nilsson-Ehle and other professors at the university founded the Reichsvereinigung Sweden-Germany in Lund , an association that aimed at "a fair assessment of the new Germany". In addition, from 1938 Nilsson-Ehle was the editor in charge of the magazine "Sverige-Tyskland" (Sweden-Germany). The magazine was seen as the mouthpiece of the Reichsvereinigung and became a propaganda tool for the "new Germany". Between 1937 and 1946 Nilsson-Ehle was a member of the Senate of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society .

In 1925 he was elected a member of the Leopoldina . In 1932 he was accepted as a corresponding member of the Soviet Academy of Sciences and in 1935 of the Prussian Academy of Sciences .

Discovery of polygeny

While working in Svalöv, Nilsson-Ehle worked on the breeding improvement of crops , especially wheat . While working on, he discovered additive polygeny (polygenic inheritance). When crossing a red- and white-grained wheat variety, he observed a splitting of the crossed varieties into five color gradations in a statistical ratio of 1: 4: 6: 4: 1.

The color gradations result from two genes with two alleles each . If more genes are involved in a characteristic, the number of classes becomes so large that a distinction is no longer possible. This creates the impression of a continuous variation. For example, if ten different genes are involved in the expression of a trait, there are around 60,000 different variants.

Publications (selection)

  • Om lifstyper and individual variation. In: Botaniska Notiser. 1907, pp. 113-140.
  • Om nordskandinaviska och andra tidiga hafresorter och fösök till deras förbättrande genome individualförädling och korsning. In: Sveriges Utsädesförenings Tidskrift. 17/1907, pp. 209-218.
  • Some results from crosses on oats and wheat. In: Botaniska Notiser. 1908, pp. 257-294.
  • Crossbreeding studies on oats and wheat. In: Lunds Universitets Arsskrift. NF Volume 5, No. 2, 1909 ( echo.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de ).

literature

  • CAM Lindman: Nilsson-Ehle, Nils Herman . In: Theodor Westrin (Ed.): Nordisk familjebok konversationslexikon och realencyklopedi . 2nd Edition. tape 19 : Mykenai-Norrpada . Nordisk familjeboks förlag, Stockholm 1913, Sp. 1037-1038 (Swedish, runeberg.org ).
  • Herman JB Juhlin-Dannfelt: Nilsson-Ehle, N. Herman . In: Theodor Westrin, Ruben Gustafsson Berg, Eugen Fahlstedt (eds.): Nordisk familjebok konversationslexikon och realencyklopedi . 2nd Edition. tape 37 : Supplement: L – Riksdag . Nordisk familjeboks förlag, Stockholm 1925, Sp. 765-766 (Swedish, runeberg.org ).
  • Olof Tedin: Herman Nilsson-Ehle. The founder of modern plant grafting. In: Hans Schwerte , Wilhelm Spengler (ed.): Researchers and scientists in Europe today. Volume 2: Physicians, biologists, anthropologists. Series: Designers of our time. Volume 4. Stalling, Oldenburg 1955, pp. 211-217.
  • Arne Hagberg: N. Herman Nilsson-Ehle. In: Svenskt biografiskt lexikon. Volume 27: Nilsson – Näsström. Bonnier, Stockholm 1991, p 41 ( sok.riksarkivet.se ).
  • Staffan Müller-Wille : Early Mendelism and the subversion of taxonomy: epistemological obstacles as institutions . In: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences . tape 36 , no. 3 , 2005, ISSN  1369-8486 , p. 465-487 , doi : 10.1016 / j.shpsc.2005.07.001 , PMID 16137599 .
  • Staffan Müller-Wille: Hybrids, pure cultures, and pure lines: from nineteenth-century biology to twentieth-century genetics . In: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences . tape 38 , no. 4 , 2007, ISSN  1369-8486 , p. 796-806 , doi : 10.1016 / j.shpsc.2007.09.012 , PMID 18053934 .
  • Staffan Müller-Wille, Christophe Bonneuil: Trials and Registers: The Archives of the Svaloef Weibull and Vilmorin Companies. In: The Mendel Newsletter. 16, American Philosophical Society, December 2007, pp. 16-21 ( amphilsoc.org PDF).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Max Planck Institute for the History of Science: Nilsson-Ehle, Nils Herman , viewed on August 13, 2008.
  2. ^ Forum för levande historia : Rasbiologist i Sverige ( Memento of January 8, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 221 kB).
  3. ↑ LUM - Lunds Universitet Meddelar, nr 6 1996 ( Memento of the original from December 10, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www3.lu.se
  4. ^ Foreign members of the Russian Academy of Sciences since 1724. Nils Herman Nilsson-Ehle. Russian Academy of Sciences, accessed October 10, 2015 .
  5. ^ Members of the previous academies. Herman Nilsson-Ehle. Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences , accessed on May 16, 2015 .
  6. ↑ The two editors and several contributors to the anthology come from the SS cadre, the article is accordingly to be viewed critically
personal data
SURNAME Nilsson-Ehle, Herman
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Nilsson-Ehle, Nils Herman
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swedish geneticist
DATE OF BIRTH February 12, 1873
PLACE OF BIRTH Bizarre
DATE OF DEATH December 29, 1949
Place of death Lund