Jan baptist van helmont biography template

Jan baptista van helmont theory

Jan Baptista van Helmont was a Belgian alchemist, physiologist, chemist, physician, and physicist who dedicated his life to science. He obtained his doctorate at the age of 20 at the University of Louvain. His days were spent spinning knowledge of medicine with other areas then little related, such as chemistry, physics and alchemy.

Thanks to this loom, he gave a different approach to the study of the digestive system, with conclusive results on the effects of various chemical principles. Years later, this earned him the title of father of biochemistry. He was one of the first scientists to study gases and their behavior, being also the father of pneumatic chemistry, to which he dedicated a large part of his life.

Observing the properties of various substances, he came to the conclusion that they differed from air, thus breaking all the paradigms of the time. He discovered nitrogen oxide and carbon dioxide and multiplied the existing knowledge about the properties of other gases. His contributions are so extensive that he is credited with the invention of the word "gas.

Some writings attribute to him incursions in the areas of theology, astronomy and botany. After studying a weeping willow for five years, he contributed a theory about water as the only element, which was accepted by the scientific community for several years. There is no clarity on the date of his birth, as it is most often found in literature that it was 12 January, but some sources defend August 6 as the day of his birth.

His mother, Maria van Stassaert, welcomed him into a noble family as the youngest of five siblings; Jan was the second male of the dynasty. His father was Christiaen van Helmont, who held a political position as State Councilor of Brabant, which allowed him to make a name for himself and support his family of seven. He died the same year Jan was born.