Julius Sachs 2015

1 - 2 October 2015
Venue: Poppelsdorf Campus (Hörsaal 4, Meckenheimer Allee 176), Bonn

Organizers: Prof. František Baluška, Prof. Heiner Goldbach, Prof. Dieter Volkmann, Prof. Ulrich Kutschera (University of Kassel)

Experimental plant physiology, based on well-designed experiments under controlled laboratory conditions, originated 150 years ago with the publication of the first book authored by Julius Sachs (1832–1897) – the monograph appeared in print in November 1865. To commemorate this event and to document the progress in this branch of the botanical sciences, a Mini-Symposium "Julius Sachs 2015" will be organized in October 2015; and special issue of Plant Signaling & Behavior will be published in November 2015.

When he was 28 years old, Sachs started to work on his seminal book that was published five years later, when he was employed as an Academy Professor in Bonn/Poppelsdorf. This was the first textbook devoted to experimental botany, which was strictly based on naturalistic arguments, i.e. the author made no reference to “vital forces” etc. and attributed all the phenomena to the principles of physics and chemistry. Accordingly, the sub-title of the „Handbuch der Experimental-Physiologie der Pflanzen“ was “Untersuchungen über die allgemeinsten Lebensbedingungen der Pflanzen und die Functionen ihrer Organe” (Handbook on the experimental physiology of plants – explorations of the general living conditions of plants and the functions of their organs). Sachs (1865) summarized the knowledge of his time and raised many open questions – from seed germination via photosynthesis/ cell respiration to developmental physiology. This book marked the origin of a new scientific discipline.