Abstract
THE centenary of the birth of Prof. K. A. Timiriazev will be celebrated on June 3 at the Timiriazev Agricultural Academy, where the jubilee session will be held. Timiriazev, one of the foremost men of science of his day, was an honorary and active member of more than forty academies of science and universities. In 1911 he was elected foreign member of the Royal Society. His scientific researches were confined almost solely to the photosynthetic activity of the green leaf ; the application of scientific achievement to practical life was closely bound up with his experimental work. He blazed a new path in the field of application of plant physiology to agriculture, in the field of science teaching, and in the field of the o popularization of science. In 1908, Timiriazev wrote : “In the world-wide struggle between that part of mankind which looks ahead and that part which is fatally destined to gaze retrospectively, the following words will be inscribed on the banner of the first: Science and Democracy—in hoc signo vinces l” Science and democracy—this idea served also as a guide to action for Timiriazev ; to him it denoted an organic bond between theory and practice, science actively serving mankind, and plant physiology at the service of agriculture. Timiriazev was a confirmed opponent of all narrow specialization, of the man of science shutting himself up in his laboratory so that there ceases to be a common language between the man of science and the community, and even between one scientific worker and another. But though specialization can be a serious evil it is essential for the development of modern science. With a very wide circle of interests, in his own research Timiriazev limited himself to one field, indeed to one problem. To explain the working of photosynthesis, the effect of solar energy on plants, was his life-work. The problem of photosynthesis was very clearly linked up for Timiriazev with general biology and his world outlook. He held that “the task of the physiologist is not to describe, but to explain and direct nature, his role must not be that of an observer but that of an active experimenter”.
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Prof. K. A. Timiriazev, For.Mem.R.S. (1843–1920). Nature 151, 611 (1943). https://doi.org/10.1038/151611b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/151611b0