science · 02 February 1802 · 222 years ago
birth
Born 2 Feb 1802; died 12 May 1887 at age 85.
Jean-Baptiste Joseph Dieudonne Boussingault was a French agricultural chemist who identified the biological nitrogen cycle. His first career was as a mining engineer. He wrote variously on such topics as mineralogy, volcanic gases, climate of the Andean region, and earthquakes (which he theorized were a violent elevation of the hardened crust, then subsidence and formation of caves). In 1821, Boussingault discovered that iodine-rich salts could be used to treat goiter, though he did not understand its preventive role. From 1836, he pursued agricultural chemistry. He determined that plants could not assimilate nitrogen directly from the air, but instead from nitrates in the soil. He investigated plant respiration, the function of their leaves, and the value and effect of manures.
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