August 07, 2019 Wednesday
Bedtime Story
Ida Henrietta Hyde and Wilhelm Kühne
It is not surprising therefore that the
Russian Empire till date has failed to create world class universities or to
create the environment around which such universities can grow, flourish and
become research power houses.
Hence it was again not a surprise that a
Professor of Physiology at the University of Heidelberg got a request from a
student in 1893 who had a Bachelor’s degree from the Cornell University (then
hardly something worth aspiring getting admitted into) and who was pursuing
Biology at the Bryn Mawr College at Bryn Mawr in Philadelphia to pursue Ph.D.
under him.
Only that the student was not a male but a
female from Davenport, Iowa and fittingly daughter of German immigrants from
Wurttemberg who wanted to be educated in her ancestral land that had world
class universities and training programs.
But there was a serious problem and that
was she possessed two X chromosomes instead of one in her cells and that her
body released one ovum per month instead of producing millions of sperms all
the time that are any way destined to be wasted away at most times in most
males.
This fact (that genes exist and that they
reside in those tiny dark threads called chromosomes), of course, was then not
known for it was still unknown how heredity operated and where the Mendel’s
genes lay hidden inside the cells.
You might not be aware that we human apes
along with most other mammals, some insects such as Drosophilia, some insects
and some plants have this XY sex-determination system in contrast to ZW
sex-determination system that is found in birds, some insects, many reptiles.
In us apes a long single gene (known as
SRY) that is present on the Y chromosome changes the whole ball game (pun
unintended) and directs the developmental pathway in the direction of maleness.
The name of this female American student
who wished to pursue doctorate in physiology under Professor was Ida Henrietta
Hyde.
The type of discrimination that she faced
throughout her professional career in general but by Wilhelm Kühne in
particular would shock anybody from today’s generation including the Hindus.
Well, probably a rural Hindu from the Hindu
heartland and a fanatic mullah might still think she deservingly got the
treatment that was bestowed out to her.
So when Ida Henrietta Hyde applied for
doctorate position at the University of Heidelberg with letters of
recommendation from Professor Alexander Götte of Institute of Zoology at
Strasbourg the university accepted her but not Professor Wilhelm Kühne, at
least not whole heartedly.
He refused to allow her either inside the
lecture halls or the laboratories of his.
It is believed that he once said that he
would never allow “skirts” to make entry into his classes.
And therefore for six semesters the
wretched American pupil had to study physiology without access to class rooms
and hands-on-training in any of the laboratory research projects.
Stay tuned to the voice of an
average story storytelling chimpanzee or login at http://panarrans.blogspot.com
Good night Mon Ami and my fellow cousin ape.
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Another great educator and a teacher that I am aware of is
Professor Subhashish Chattopadhyay in Bangalore, India.
While I narrate stories, Professor Subhashish an electronic
engineer and a former professor at BARC, does and teaches real mathematics and
physics.
He started the participation of Indian students at the
International Physics Olympiad.
Do visit him here:
All his books can be downloaded for free through this link:
For edutainment and English education of your children, I
recommend this large collection of Halloween Songs for Kids:
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