C arl F riedrich W ilhelm L udwig, a fabled physiologist and mentor of S candinavian P hysiology Announcing the C arl L udwig Award for young authors in A cta P hysiologica (O xford)редакционная статья
Аннотация: The door creaks open, giving way to only a narrow slit, two eyes hesitantly peer at me, a muzzled 'Yes he's still alive' is barely audible. Odd, I think as the door promptly closes, leaving me without a clue to what just happened. Only, the day before, in the catacombs of Europe's largest clinics, the Charité, had I discovered a physiology legend's bust: Carl Ludwig (Fig. 1). His nose brutally severed, leaving only a hole in the plaster and thick dust crust not quite covering Ludwig' prominent scar on his cheek. A Schmiss, as they call such scars in Germany. Today, some fraternities in Germany still perform the Mensur, a sort of ritualized fencing. All injuries from such battles, in former times, were presented with pride; legend has it that salt was applied to the wound so that a decent scar may form. Quite different from nowadays, Scandinavian Student Nations, the German fraternities called Burschenschaften are frequently political. Today, the fewest academics with a Schmiss would be suspected being liberal. In Ludwig's days, however, this was quite different. The fraternities challenged conservative forces, in particular, the Prussians, by demanding a unified Germany, freed from the firm grip of local authoritarian powers. That is why Ludwig was never allowed to speak in Prussia and the contemporary von Fallersleben, a social activist, was exiled to Helgoland, where he wrote the German National Anthem. It is said that the first verse (Deutschland, Deutschland über Alles, über Alles in der Welt) is a plea for uniting Germany in order to free the country from Prussian hegemony, much to the contrary to what a later regime misused this piece of music for. Carl Ludwig was actually the cause of the gathering in front of my door. As I found out later, no one dared volunteer to open door, because they feared I had been slashed to death by some student avenger. My curtain was half drawn just enough to cover my face. Next to me on the desk, seemingly staring at my monitor was Carl Ludwig's mutilated bust. Looking from a distant window, they took the remnants of Carl Ludwig's face for being my lifeless leftovers. So why are you reading this? Ludwig is the father of reflex control of circulation, a topic so important that our journal last year published several articles together as a supplement (Hansen & Vanhoutte 2011), with various articles related to Ludwig's work (Edvinsson & Povlsen 2011, Lecrux & Hamel 2011, Macarthur et al. 2011, Yu & Wang 2011). Together with Cyon (a Russian physiologist visiting Leipzig), Ludwig discovered the baroreceptor reflex (Cyon & Ludwig 1866, Persson 1991). Moreover, in his seminal textbook, he describes the role of the nerves for controlling renal excretion. The Danish physiologist Christian Bohr [see (Gjedde 2010, Wang 2011) visited Ludwig's laboratory twice (1881 and 1883) (Trendelenburg & Schulz 1953)]. As the 403rd foreign member, Ludwig was elected on 14 April 1869 into the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (Kungliga Vetenskapsakademien), where Ludwig's thank-you-letter from May 31st of that year is filed. Remarkably, Alarik Frithiof Holmgren, the founder of our Journal (at that time named Skandinavisches Archiv für Physiologie) was Ludwig's guest from 1861 to 1864 (Trendelenburg & Schulz 1953). Christian Lovén, another famous Scandinavian physiologist who discovered taste buds, came to Ludwig's laboratory as Holmgren left (Trendelenburg & Schulz 1953). Even Lovgrén scholars Hammarsten [pioneer in blood coagulation, still a strong field in Acta (Lominadze et al. 2010, Malmstrom et al. 2010)] and Tigerstedt [discovered renin, recently reviewed in Acta (Fandriks 2011)] spent time with Ludwig in Leipzig (Trendelenburg & Schulz 1953). Tigerstedt wrote in his obituary on Ludwig (Hygiaea 1895, citation from: Bo Rydqvist, Stockholm; personal communication): I Ludwigs laboratorium var allt öppet. Ingen slöt sig i 'schalar' eller arbetade innanför stängda dörrar. Varje arbete varje försök var tillgängligt för alla. Om man inte just själv hade ett försök på gång, kunde man följa någon annans försök och på så sätt lära sig metoder och deras användning. Så erhöll man, som fritt, fysiologiska kunskaper och färdigheter i mängd (In Ludwig's laboratory, everything was open. No one draped himself in a shawl nor were doors closed. All work, and every experiment was assessable to all. If you did not have an experiment running at the moment, you could follow someone else's experiment, and by doing so, learn methods and their application. That way, you received for free knowledge and skills in masses). It is said that Ludwig not only designed protocols for his juniors, he also conducted most experiments and wrote their papers. Once an assistant asked Ludwig, why after doing so much of his work, Ludwig refuses to co-author the resulting manuscript. Obviously, no one in the world will believe that the assistant did this all by himself, and now he is leaving Ludwig's famous group almost as a liar. Ludwig replied with a grin: wrong, everyone will believe you did it by yourself. However, they will only believe you, if your next publication is as good as this one! What a motivator Ludwig was. Ludwig can be seen as a patron of young physiologists, and he knew what counts. After all, he was appointed chairman at the age of 27. Acta Physiologica (Oxford) is naming their new award for upcoming physiologists The Carl Ludwig Award. Have you recently read a wonderful article in Acta Physiologica (Oxford) from a junior scientist (first author ≤40 years, article no longer than a year back)? Then, tell us about it. We will award one laureate on the occasion of the next annual SPS Meeting with 2000 € to be spent as the awardee feels best, be it in a new laptop computer or a beach vacation to gather new ideas. And this is just the beginning. Two more prizes for the best publications in Acta are to follow. Stay tuned!
Год издания: 2012
Авторы: Pontus B. Persson
Издательство: Wiley
Источник: Acta Physiologica
Ключевые слова: Heart Rate Variability and Autonomic Control, Mitochondrial Function and Pathology
Другие ссылки: Acta Physiologica (HTML)
PubMed (HTML)
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Открытый доступ: closed
Том: 204
Выпуск: 3
Страницы: 289–290