Adolf Eugen Fick (3 September 1829 – 21 August 1901) was a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

-born

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

and

physiologist Physiology (; ) is the scientific study of functions and mechanisms in a living system. As a sub-discipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ systems, individual organs, cells, and biomolecules carry out the chemica ...

Early life and education

Fick began his work in the formal study of

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

and

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which ...

before realising an aptitude for medicine. He then earned his

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''l ...

in medicine from the

University of Marburg The Philipps University of Marburg (german: Philipps-Universität Marburg) was founded in 1527 by Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse, which makes it one of Germany's oldest universities and the oldest still operating Protestant university in the wor ...

in 1851. As a fresh medical graduate, he began his work as a

prosector A prosector is a person with the special task of preparing a dissection for demonstration, usually in medical schools or hospitals. Many important anatomists began their careers as prosectors working for lecturers and demonstrators in anatomy and p ...

.The Virtual Laboratory: Fick, Adolf Eugen
accessed 5 February 2006 He died in

Flanders Flanders (, ; Dutch: ''Vlaanderen'' ) is the Flemish-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to cultu ...

at age 71.

Career

In 1855, he introduced

Fick's laws of diffusion Fick's laws of diffusion describe diffusion and were derived by Adolf Fick in 1855. They can be used to solve for the diffusion coefficient, . Fick's first law can be used to derive his second law which in turn is identical to the diffusion equ ...

, which govern the

diffusion Diffusion is the net movement of anything (for example, atoms, ions, molecules, energy) generally from a region of higher concentration to a region of lower concentration. Diffusion is driven by a gradient in Gibbs free energy or chemical ...

of a gas across a fluid membrane. In 1870, he was the first to measure

cardiac output In cardiac physiology, cardiac output (CO), also known as heart output and often denoted by the symbols Q, \dot Q, or \dot Q_ , edited by Catherine E. Williamson, Phillip Bennett is the volumetric flow rate of the heart's pumping output: th ...

, using what is now called the

Fick principle The Fick principle states that blood flow to an organ can be calculated using a marker substance if the following information is known: * Amount of marker substance taken up by the organ per unit time * Concentration of marker substance in arteria ...

. Fick managed to double-publish his law of diffusion, as it applied equally to physiology and physics. His work led to the development of the

direct Fick The Fick principle states that blood flow to an organ can be calculated using a marker substance if the following information is known: * Amount of marker substance taken up by the organ per unit time * Concentration of marker substance in arteria ...

method for measuring

Anecdotal

Fick's nephew,

Adolf Gaston Eugen Fick Adolf Gaston Eugen Fick (22 February 1852 – 11 February 1937) was a German ophthalmologist who invented the contact lens. He was the nephew of the German physiologist Adolf Eugen Fick, and the son of the German anatomy professor Franz Ludwig ...

, invented the

contact lens Contact lenses, or simply contacts, are thin lenses placed directly on the surface of the eyes. Contact lenses are ocular prosthetic devices used by over 150 million people worldwide, and they can be worn to correct vision or for cosmeti ...

.The "Kontaktbrille" of Adolf Eugen Fick (1887)
accessed 20 April 2010

References

External links

Short biography and bibliography
in the Virtual Laboratory of the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science
Science Quotes by Adolf Eugen Fick
(todayinsci.com) {{DEFAULTSORT:Fick, Adolf Eugen 1829 births 1901 deaths Alldeutscher Verband members German biophysicists German physiologists Physicians from Kassel People from the Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel University of Marburg alumni University of Würzburg faculty University of Zurich faculty