Notable Biologists Posters and Prints, “G...-H...-I...-”
for the science classroom, home schoolers, science education scholars.

Patrick Geddes
b. 10-2-1854; Scotland
d. 4-17-1932; France

Biologist Patrick Geddes, best remembered for his innovative thinking in the fields of urban planning and education, was interested in the science of ecology, nature conservation and deeply concerned about pollution. He is considered a forerunner of modern Green politics.

The “Think Global, Act Local” idea has been attributed to Geddes through his ideas published in “Cities in Evolution” (1915).

Patrick Geddes quotes ~
• “'Local character' is thus no mere accidental old-world quaintness, as its mimics think and say. It is attained only in course of adequate grasp and treatment of the whole environment, and in active sympathy with the essential and characteristic life of the place concerned.”
• “Each social formation, through each of its material activities, exerts its influence upon the civic whole; and each of its ideas and ideals wins also its place and power.”
• “... a city is more than a place in space, it is a drama in time. ”

Ernst Haeckel
b. 2-16-1834; Potsdam, Germany
d. 8-8-1919; Jena

Haeckel, an eminent German biologist, naturalist, philosopher, physician, professor and artist, named thousands of new species and coined the biological terms phylum, phylogeny, and ecology. He was also a supporter of Charles Darwin.

Ernst Haeckel quotes ~
• “Politics is applied biology.”
• “By ecology, we mean the whole science of the relations of the organisms to the environment including, in the broad sense, all the conditions of existence. These are partly organic, partly inorganic in nature; both, as we have shown, are of the greatest significance for the form of organisms, for they force them to become adapted.”

• Colonial Jellyfish illustration, art print

J. B. S. Haldane
b. 11-5-1892; Oxford, England
d. 12-1-1964; India

Geneticist, evolutionary biologist, futurist, socialist, Marxist, communist, vegetarian, and Hindu, John Burdon Sanderson Haldane eventually gave up his British citizenship to become an Indian citizen.

J. B. S. Haldane quotes ~
• “And if we must educate our poets and artists in science, we must educate our masters, labour and capital, in art.”
• “If one could conclude as to the nature of the Creator from a study of his creation it would appear that God has a special fondness for stars and beetles.”
• “It is my supposition that the Universe in not only queerer than we imagine, is queerer than we can imagine.”
• “The wise man regulates his conduct by the theories both of religion and science. But he regards these theories not as statements of ultimate fact but as art-forms.”

Haldane Books at Amazon - On Being the Right Size, What is Life?, Daedalus; or, Science and the Future, etc.

Hermann von Helmholtz
b. 8-31-1821; Potsdam, Germany
d. 9-8-1894; Charlottenburg

Physician and physicist Hermann von Helmholtz made significant contributions to several widely varied areas of modern science.

Physiology and psychology: mathematics of the eye, theories of vision, ideas on the visual perception of space, color vision research, and on the sensation of tone, perception of sound, and empiricism.

Physics: theories on the conservation of energy, work in electrodynamics, chemical thermodynamics, and on a mechanical foundation of thermodynamics.

Philosopher: philosophy of science, ideas on the relation between the laws of perception and the laws of nature, the science of aesthetics, and ideas on the civilizing power of science.

One of his notable students was Heinrich Rudolf Hertz.

Hermann von Helmholtz quote ~
• “Whoever in the pursuit of science, seeks after immediate practical utility may rest assured that he seeks in vain.” Academic Discourse (Heidelberg 1862)

• Science and Culture: Popular and Philosophical Essays

Robert Hooke
b. 7-18-1635; Isle of Wight
d. 3-3-1703; London

Robert Hooke coined the biological term “cell” because his microscopic observations of plants reminded him of monks' cells (Latin: cellula). Hooke was also a “polymath” - a person who excels in multiple fields; Hooke collaborated with architect Christopher Wren in the rebuiding of London after the Great Fire of 1666.

Robert Hooke quote ~
• “The truth is, the Science of Nature has been already too long made only a work of the Brain and the Fancy: It is now high time that it should return to the plainness and soundness of Observations on material and obvious things.”

Thomas Henry Huxley
b. 5-4-1825; Ealing, Middlesex, England
d. 6-29-1895

Thomas Henry Huxley was an autodidact, a mostly self-taught person, who was instrumental in developing scientific education in Britain. Huxley was also known as “Darwin's Bulldog” for his defense of Darwin's theory of evolution.

Thomas Henry Huxley was the grandfather of author Aldous Huxley; Sir Julian Huxley, biologist and the first director of UNESCO; and Nobel laureate Sir Andrew Huxley.

Thomas Henry Huxley quotes ~
• “Sit down before fact as a little child, be prepared to give up every preconceived notion, follow humbly wherever and to whatever abysses nature leads, or you shall learn nothing.”
• “Science is organized common sense where many a beautiful theory was killed by an ugly fact.”
• “There is the greatest practical benefit in making a few failures early in life.”