Internet search giant Google has paid tribute to Albert von Szent-Györgyi de Nagyrápolt, a Hungarian physiologist who discovered vitamin C, with a Google Doodle that features fruits rich in vitamin C. The Google Doodle marks the 118th birthday of Szent-Györgyi with the logo that looks like a fruit juice label, with colorful drawings of fruits that include oranges, lemons and strawberries.
Szent-Györgyi, known as the father of citric acid cycle, was born in Budapest in 1893. He won the 1937 Nobel Prize for Medicine for “his discoveries in connection with the biological combustion processes, with special reference to vitamin-C and the catalysis of fumaric acid.” Earlier that decade, Szent-Györgyi and other scientists working with him isolated and identified vitamin C by testing guinea pigs with paprika, a vitamin C rich spice.
The Google Doodle also included paprika, which are seated next to the oranges and strawberries.
Szent-Györgyi pursued his studies at the Semmelweis University, which was then interrupted because of the first World War. After the war, he continued his research and studied chemistry of cellular respiration at the University of Groningen.
Szent-Györgyi’s contribution to science and health has earned him massive reputation from the Cambridge University. In 1927, he received his doctorate degree for his work “hexuronic acid” from adrenal gland tissue. It was later found to be vitamin C.
In 1947, he left for the United States, where he established the Institute for Muscle Research at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Massachusetts. Szent-Györgyi stayed there and continued his studies until he died on October 22, 1986.
What do you think of today’s Google Doodle?
