A Synthesis of Thermodynamics and Bioenergetics in Plant Physiology: The Investigation of a Moody Apprentice

Abstract

On a dark and wintry day in 1883, the St. Petersburg Society of Naturalists met to hear the conclusions of a 3-year investigation in plant physiology. To grow normally, the audience learned, fungi require magnesium and an abundance of oxygen. This news, likely seen by the Russian naturalists in attendance as a mundane contribution to plant physiology, meant much more for its bearer, Sergei Nikolaevich Vinogradskii. His oral presentation marked the completion of a long and tedious apprenticeship, one he had entered into reluctantly at best, and which offered him no apparent job opportunities. Depressed and frustrated by his seemingly futile efforts, he returned home to his Ukrainian estate in an attempt to leave as much of this experience behind him. The investigation, however, had left an indelible mark on Vinogradskii’s intellectual profile.