History and introduction to bioliogical problems

Traditionally, hydrodynamics deals with the behaviour of bodies in fluids and, in particular, with phenomena in which a force acts on a particle in a viscous solution. Very eminent scientists, such as Isaac Newton, James Clerk Maxwell, Lord Rayleigh (J. W. Strutt) and Albert Einstein, started their careers with major contributions to the science of hydrodynamics. Note that not only are the discoveries from more than 100 years ago still highly relevant today, but also that they continue to stimulate important new developments in the field.

1731

The science of hydrodynamics arose from the classical book Hydrodynamics by Daniel Bernoulli, which contained the ‘Bernoulli law’ relating pressure and velocity in an incompressible fluid, as well as a number of its consequences. The next fundamental contribution to the field was in 1879 when Sir Horace Lamb published another classical book also named Hydrodynamics.

1821

Botanist Robert Brown described the random, thermal motions of small plant particles suspended in water, a phenomenon that was later named Brownian motion. In 1855 Adolf E. Fick published a phenomenological description of translational diffusion and deduced the fundamental laws governing transport phenomena in solutions. In the 1990s, the method of video-enhanced microscopy was proposed for the direct observation of Brownian motion of labelled macromolecules in a membrane.

1846

J. L. M. Poiseuille produced a theory of liquid flow in a capillary. Based on this theory, Wilhelm Ostwald invented the viscometer and introduced its use in physical and chemical experiments.