258:, since he believed that this light radiation allowed the morphogenetic field to control embryonic development. His published observations, which related that cell proliferation of an onion was accelerated by directing these rays down a tube, brought him great attention. Some 500 attempts at replication, however, produced overwhelmingly negative results, so that the idea was neglected for decades until it commanded some renewed interest in the later 20th century. However the furore, which may have sparked
297:
his mitogenetic radiation work, since it had apparently led to a cheap and simple way of diagnosing cancer. He was director of the
Institute of Experimental Biology in Leningrad from 1945 to 1948. He sought to redefine his "heretical" concept of the morphogenetic field in general essays, pointing to molecular interactions unexplained by chemistry.
296:
from 1924 to 1929 but fell afoul of the
Communist Party and was forced to relinquish the chair. He then directed a laboratory at the Institute of Experimental Medicine in Leningrad from 1930 until 1945, though he was forced to evacuate during World War 2. In 1941, he was awarded a Stalin Prize for
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42:
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in 1962. The observation was duplicated in a
Western laboratory by Quickenden and Que Hee in 1974. In the same year, Dr. V. P. Kaznacheyev announced that his research team in Novosibirsk had detected intercellular communication by means of these rays.
304:
came to power but continued working at home. Sadly, his wife Lydia died in 1951. However, his daughter, Anna, continued his work and, shortly after his death, contributed papers that supported some aspects of her father's work on "mitogenetic" rays.
199:
Serving in 1904 with the
Russian army in the field, he had much time to think, and he reasoned with himself that even a full understanding of every developmental process might not provide, or even necessarily lead to, a sense of understanding of
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in living systems would show the extent to which the vectors he described can be generated without the assumption of an overarching field, so the search for a physical field was abandoned in favour of more neutral concepts like the paradigm of
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laboratories of the universities of
Strasbourg and Bern until 1907. At this time, he met his future wife and lifelong collaborator, the Russian-born medical trainee Lydia Felicine. His continuing interest, with the help of his relative
215:
During the next decade, Gurwitsch contributed a series of landmark papers arguing that the orientation and division of cells was random at local level but was rendered coherent by an overall field which obeyed the regular
208:, "top-down" model was needed to explain the ordered sequence of such individual processes. This conviction led him to adopt field theory as an embryological paradigm. His ideas had much in common with his contemporary
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Gurwitch was the son of a Jewish provincial lawyer; his family was artistic and intellectual, and he decided to study medicine only after failing to gain a place studying painting. After research in the laboratory of
654:
L. Blyakher, S. Zalkind. Alexander
Gavrilovich Gurvich. Bulletin of Moscow Society of Naturalists. Department of Biology, 1955, Vol 60, Part 4: Alexander Gavrilovich Gurvich, Moscow, 1970 (a bibliography).
476:
Brief popular accounts appear in G. L. Playfair and S. Hill, "The Cycles of Heaven" (Souvenir, 1978, Pan 1979) and S. Ostrander and L. Schroeder, "PSI: Psychic
Discoveries behind the Iron Curtain", Abacus
196:, in the advances in physics at that time aided in the formulation of his morphogenetic field theory, which Gurwitsch himself viewed throughout his life as no more than a suggestive hypothesis.
696:
663:
Biophotonics and
Coherent Systems in Biology by L. V. Beloussov (editor), V. L. Voeikov (editor), V. S. Martynyuk (editor), Springer Science+Business Media, LLC., 2007, New York.
338:. The early interest in physics which inspired Gurwitsch in the end tended to render his ideas untenable. The "mitogenetic ray" was one of the scientific topics characterized by
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691:
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There has been a recent revival in field theories of life, albeit again at the fringes of science, particularly among those who seek to include an account of
349:
However, the tenacity of Anna
Gurwitsch, together with the development of the photon counter multiplier, resulted in the confirmation of the phenomenon of
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Quickenden, Terence I.; Que Hee, Shane S. (1974). "Weak luminescence from the yeast saccharomyces cerevisiae and the existence of mitogenetic radiation".
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Biophotonics and
Coherent Systems (L. V. Beloussov, F.-A. Popp, V.L. Voeikov and R. van Wijk eds) Moscow University Press, Moscow 2000.
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or ultra-weak biological photon emissions – weak electromagnetic waves which were detected in the ultra-violet range of the spectrum.
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experiments, brought Gurwitsch an international reputation that led to several European lecture tours. His work influenced that of
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confined such ideas to the backwaters of biology. Gurwitsch had been ahead of his time in his interest in the
365:. The influence of Gurwitsch's theory is particularly evident in the work of the British plant physiologist,
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220:– an enterprise that required extensive statistical analysis. In 1907, he published his general treatise
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440:"Life of Alexander G. Gurwitsch and his relevant contribution to the theory of morphogenetic fields"
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Field theories of morphogenesis had their heyday in the 1920s, but the increasing success of
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For a review and bibliography, see Hollander and Claus, J. Opt. Soc. Am., 25, 270-286 (1935)
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8:
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Gurwitsch, A. A. (1988). "A historical review of the problem of mitogenetic radiation".
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in 1895. He graduated from Munich University in 1897, having studied under A. A. Boehm.
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claims they exhibit coherent patterns. These studies have drawn only fringe interest.
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After the 1917 revolution, Gurwitsch fell upon hard times and accepted the chair of
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Biophotonics (L.V.Beloussov and F.-A. Popp eds) BioInform Services, Moscow, 1995.
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A. G. Gurvich. The Theory of Biological Field. - Moscow: Soviet Science, 1944.
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Peninsula, where he spent seven happy years. Here in 1923, he first observed
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Developmental Biology 8e Online: The "Re-discovery" of Morphogenic Fields
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regarded the existence of Gurwitsch rays as experimentally proven.
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146:: Александр Гаврилович Гурвич; 1874–1954) was a Russian and later
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237:
55:
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85:
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Seifriz, William (1931). "Radiant energy from living matter".
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Academic staff of Tavrida National V.I. Vernadsky University
41:
147:
212:, and the two developed a mutual professional admiration.
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Atlas and Outline of Embryology of Vertebrates and of Man
27:
Russian and later Soviet biologist and medical scientist
563:(7). Springer Science and Business Media LLC: 545–550.
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Beloussov, L. V.; Opitz, J. M.; Gilbert, S. F. (1997).
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Gurwitsch was Professor of Histology and Embryology at
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A. G. Gurvich. Mitogenetic radiation - Moscow, 1945.
175:, publishing his first paper on the biochemistry of
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Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour
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Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications
150:biologist and medical scientist who originated the
444:The International Journal of Developmental Biology
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104:Morphogenetic Field Theory, Mitogenetic Radiation
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240:University, the chief seat of learning of the
692:Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich alumni
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369:, and his concept of "morphic resonance."
321:properties of the embryo, but more modern
40:
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526:. Cambridge, Mass: Westview Press.
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187:After graduation, he worked in the
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747:Biologists from the Russian Empire
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522:Birstein, Vadim J. (2004-11-10).
300:Gurwitsch retired in 1948 after
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132:Alexander Gavrilovich Gurwitsch,
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251:Gurwitsch named the phenomenon
702:Recipients of the Stalin Prize
642:Playfair and Hill op.cit. p107
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331:non-equilibrium thermodynamics
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1:
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622:10.1016/0006-291x(74)90306-4
171:, he began to specialise in
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742:20th-century Ukrainian Jews
737:Jewish Ukrainian scientists
616:(2). Elsevier BV: 764–770.
524:The Perversion Of Knowledge
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363:developmental psychobiology
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325:theories (such as that of
183:Morphogenetic field theory
154:theory and discovered the
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717:Developmental biologists
287:Lydia and Anna Gurwitsch
169:Karl Wilhelm von Kupffer
752:20th-century biologists
722:Ukrainian embryologists
682:Scientists from Poltava
509:10.1002/sce.3730160109
379:Regional specification
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120:Developmental biology
344:pathological science
329:) and treatments of
501:1931SciEd..16...34S
152:morphogenetic field
60:Poltava Governorate
34:Alexander Gurwitsch
589:Beloussov, op.cit.
569:10.1007/bf01953301
425:2010-09-16 at the
389:Walter John Kilner
290:
218:inverse square law
732:Jewish biologists
727:Soviet biologists
489:Science Education
356:Fritz-Albert Popp
323:self-organization
294:Moscow University
268:Paul Alfred Weiss
194:Leonid Mandelstam
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110:Scientific career
52:26 September 1874
16:(Redirected from
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94:Soviet Union
90:Russian SFSR
74:27 July 1954
687:1874 births
677:1954 deaths
557:Experientia
262:'s similar
254:mitogenetic
671:Categories
408:References
351:biophotons
278:Later life
246:biophotons
173:embryology
162:Early life
134:sometimes
78:1954-07-28
630:0006-291X
577:0014-4754
456:0214-6282
256:radiation
234:Histology
189:histology
156:biophoton
18:Gurwitsch
542:56696682
423:Archived
373:See also
319:emergent
315:genetics
206:holistic
202:ontogeny
140:Gurvitch
649:Sources
497:Bibcode
464:9449452
242:Crimean
238:Taurida
144:Russian
136:Gurvich
76: (
56:Poltava
628:
575:
540:
530:
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454:
309:Legacy
264:Orgone
148:Soviet
116:Fields
86:Moscow
477:1973.
626:ISSN
573:ISSN
538:OCLC
528:ISBN
460:PMID
452:ISSN
342:as "
71:Died
49:Born
618:doi
565:doi
505:doi
346:."
236:at
138:or
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