Édouard Chatton, arpenteur du monde géant des vies minuscules, par Catherine Jessus, LBD
Who is Édouard Chatton? His name has been forgotten, and yet he left his mark on the history of biology. During the first half of the 20th century, through the ordeals of the two world wars, from the Pasteur Institute to the Sorbonne, via Tunis, Strasbourg and Montpellier, Roscoff and Banyuls, this passionate and visionary researcher opened up the then unknown world of protists, these single-celled beings with a nucleus (eukaryotes), which inhabit all waters. At a time when Darwin was struggling to establish himself in Lamarck’s country, when naturalist observations were just giving way to experimental sciences, Édouard Chatton drew up the first drafts of the tree of life, introducing the separation between prokaryotes and eukaryotes, as he proposed to name these two great kingdoms. He is passionate about the mechanisms of cell division, the organization of cilia and flagella, and the sexuality of protists, overturning some well-established dogmas. Finally, as an exceptional draughtsman, he left us large wall plates, made for his students, filled with colorful, mysterious and furiously aesthetic drawings, which have reappeared after a century of oblivion for our great pleasure.
Vendredi 26 novembre – 13h30 Campus Pierre et Marie Curie, Barre Cassan, salle de conférence de l’IBPS Bâtiment C, 4th floor, room 404
