The Google logo appears in the form of a cross section of the earth's crust to commemorate Danish geologist and anatomist Nicolas Steno's 374th birthday.
Steno (also known as Nicolaus Steno, Niels Steensen or Niels Stensen) is regarded as the father of geology and he also made significant contributions to the field of human anatomy. He discovered the parotid salivary duct, also called Stensen's duct.
He was the one to propose the idea that fossils are remains of ancient living organisms and the reason behind the formation of many rocks is sedimentation. Steno was also the first to understand that a careful study of the earth's strata and fossils can give a glimpse of the planet's history as the earth's crust contains a chronological history of geologic events.
Steno later gave up science for religion and became a Roman Catholic in 1667 and was made a bishop in 1677. He died at the age of 48 on November 25, 1686.
Google posted a total of 260 doodles in 2011. This figure is only nominally higher than the 258 doodles that Google put up on its home page in 2010. Some of the doodles were limited to Google's country specific home pages while others appeared globally.
Google recently announced the revamp of its Doodle site (www.google.com/doodles) which houses all Google doodles since the very first back in 1998.
Nicolas Steno was born in Copenhagen on New Year's Day (Julian calendar), the son of a Lutheran goldsmith who worked regularly for King Christian IV of Denmark. Stensen grew up in isolation in his childhood, because of an unknown disease. In 1644 his father died, after which his mother remarried another goldsmith. In 1654-1655, 240 pupils of his school died because of the plague. Across the street lived Peder Schumacher, (who would offer Steno a post as professor in Copenhagen in 1671). After completing his university education, Steno set out to travel through Europe; in fact, he would be on the move for the rest of his life. In the Netherlands, France, Italy and Germany he came into contact with prominent physicians and scientists. These influences led him to use his own powers of observation to make important scientific discoveries. At a time when scientific questions were mostly answered by appeal to ancient authorities, Steno was bold enough to trust his own eyes, even when his observations differed from traditional doctrines.
At the urging of Thomas Bartholin, Steno first travelled to Rostock, then to Amsterdam, where he studied anatomy under Gerard Blasius, focusing again on the Lymphatic system. Steno discovered a previously undescribed structure, the "ductus stenonianus" (the duct of the parotid salivary gland) in sheep, dog and rabbit heads. A dispute with Blasius over credit for the discovery arose, but Steno's name is associated with this structure.[3] Within a few months Steno moved to Leiden, where he met the students Jan Swammerdam, Frederik Ruysch, Reinier de Graaf, Franciscus de le Boe Sylvius, a famous professor, and Baruch Spinoza.[4] Also Descartes was publishing on the working of the brain, and Steno did not think his explanation of the origin of tears was correct. Steno studied the heart, and determined that it was an ordinary muscle.
He travelled to Saumur where he met Melchisédech Thévenot and Ole Borch. Steno travelled to Montpellier, where he met Martin Lister and William Croone, who introduced Steno's work to the Royal Society. In Pisa Steno met the Grand Duke of Tuscany, who supported arts and science. Steno was invited to live in the Palazzo Vecchio, in return he had to gather a Cabinet of curiosities. Steno first went to Rome and met Alexander VII and Marcello Malpighi. As an anatomist in the hospital Steno focused on the muscular system and the nature of muscle contraction. He also became a member of Accademia del Cimento in Florence. Like Vincenzio Viviani, Steno used geometry to show that a contracting muscle changes its shape but not its volume.
