Lourens Gerhard Marinus Baas Becking (4 January 1895 in
Deventer – 6 January 1963 in
Canberra, Australia) was a
Dutch botanist and
microbiologist. He is known for the
Baas Becking hypothesis, which he originally formulated as ''"Everything is everywhere, but the environment selects"''.
Biography
Baas Becking was born in
Deventer on 4 January 1895.
Baas Becking studied microbiology at
Delft University before studying
biology at
Utrecht University with a focus on botany.
[ de Wit and Bouvier (2006) p. 756] In between completing his studies in Utrecht and submitting his thesis, Baas Becking worked in the laboratory of
Thomas Hunt Morgan in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...
. In 1923, Baas Becking accepted the position of professor at
Stanford, where he taught economic botany and plant physiology.
Baas Becking's studies at Stanford heavily influenced his later work by introducing him to research on
extremophile
An extremophile (from Latin ' meaning "extreme" and Greek ' () meaning "love") is an organism that is able to live (or in some cases thrive) in extreme environments, i.e. environments that make survival challenging such as due to extreme tem ...
s, research he conducted himself as the director of the
Jacques Loeb Marine Laboratory in
Pacific Grove.
In particular, Baas Becking studied the salt lakes and methane-rich reservoirs in
California.
Baas Becking returned to the Netherlands in 1930 as a professor of general botany at the
University of Leiden[ Quispel (1998) p. 69] and prefect (director) of the
Hortus Botanicus Leiden
The Hortus botanicus of Leiden is the oldest botanical garden of the Netherlands, and one of the oldest in the world. It is located in the southwestern part of the historical centre of the city, between the Academy building and the old Leiden ...
. It was in Leiden that Baas Becking formulated the hypothesis known by his name. In 1934 he published the book ''Geobiology''
after a series of lectures in Pulchri Studio in The Hague. While in Leiden in 1940, he was appointed Director of the state-financed
Botanical Garden of Buitenzorg in present-day
Bogor, on the island of
Java, with the intention of restoring the garden to its former glory
Under his leadership, a new botanic garden branch for dry-tropical plants was opened in the town of
Purwodadi in 1941.
Although his family moved to Java in 1940, the
Battle of the Netherlands prevented his leaving, and he remained in the Netherlands during
the five-year occupation. During this time, he was twice imprisoned for trying to escape to
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...
. During his imprisonment, Baas Becking studied the
typhoid fever spreading through his prison camp.
After
World War II, Baas Becking was initially prevented from beginning his work in Bogor due to the
Indonesian Revolution. Until November 1946 he was head, with the rank of colonel, of the mobile units of the Red Cross. He moved to
New Caledonia in 1948, after being appointed president of the scientific council of the
South Pacific Commission
The Pacific Community (PC), formerly the South Pacific Commission (SPC), is an international development organisation governed by 27 members, including 22 Pacific island countries and territories. The organisation's headquarters are in Nouméa, ...
.
Baas Becking later worked for the
Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation in
Cronulla and
Canberra. The
Bureau of Mineral Resources
Geoscience Australia is an agency of the Australian Government. It carries out geoscientific research. The agency is the government's technical adviser on all aspects of geoscience, and custodian of the geographic and geological data and knowle ...
in Canberra recognized Baas Becking's contributions by opening the Baas Becking Geobiological Laboratory.
Baas Becking became member of the
Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1932 and resigned in 1942. In 1945 he once again became member, in 1949 he became foreign member.
Baas Becking hypothesis
Based on his research in California's salt lakes, as well as work by others on salt lakes worldwide, Baas Becking (1934)
concluded, ''"Everything is everywhere, but the environment selects"''. Baas Becking attributed the first half of this hypothesis to his colleague
Martinus Beijerinck (1913).
[ Staley and Gosink (1999) p. 193] Some years before,
Schewiakoff (1893) also theorized about the cosmopolitan habitat of free-living protozoans.
The application of this hypothesis to microorganisms, specifically to the dependence of their geographic distribution over the earth on their metabolic properties, formed the basis of Baas Becking's research program at the
Hortus Botanicus Leiden
The Hortus botanicus of Leiden is the oldest botanical garden of the Netherlands, and one of the oldest in the world. It is located in the southwestern part of the historical centre of the city, between the Academy building and the old Leiden ...
.
Baas Becking presented a series of lectures on the subject to the
Diligentia in
The Hague, which he published as a book titled ''Geobiology'' in 1934.
[ Quispel (1998) p. 70]
Baas Becking's hypothesis is often misquoted, with the "but" missing or replaced with "and".
[ de Wit and Bouvier (2006) p. 755]
Notes
References
*
Quispel (1998
"Lourens G. M. Baas Becking (1895-1963), Inspirator for many (micro)biologists"
''International Microbiology'' 1: 69-72
*
Staley and Gosink (1999
"Poles Apart: Biodiversity and Biogeography of Sea Ice Bacteria"
''Annual Review of Microbiology'' 53: 189-215
*
de Wit and Bouvier (2006
'Everything is everywhere,''but'', the environment selects'''; what did Baas Becking and Beijerinck really say?"">"'''Everything is everywhere,''but'', the environment selects'''; what did Baas Becking and Beijerinck really say?"
''Environmental Microbiology'' 8:4 755-758
{{DEFAULTSORT:Baas Becking, Lourens
1895 births
1963 deaths
Dutch microbiologists
20th-century Dutch botanists
Delft University of Technology alumni
Utrecht University alumni
Leiden University faculty
People from Deventer
Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences
Members of Teylers Tweede Genootschap
Dutch expatriates in New Caledonia
Dutch expatriates in France