Frederick Blackman

Frederick Frost Blackman ( born July 25, 1866 in Lambeth, England; † January 30, 1947 in Cambridge ) was a British plant physiologist.

Blackman studied from 1883 to 1887 medicine at St Bartholomew's Hospital in London. In 1885 he earned a Bachelor of Science degree. From 1887 to 1891 he studied natural sciences at St John 's College at Cambridge University. In 1891 he was Demonstrator, 1897 Lecturer and from 1904 to 1936 he was a reader of Botany at Cambridge University.

Blackman has made fundamental discoveries about photosynthesis and these 1905 published along with Gabrielle Matthaei. They cultivated plants ( cherry laurel and jerusalem artichoke) and varied the concentration of carbon dioxide ( CO2), the light intensity and temperature. Was then measured the effects of these parameters on the rate of photosynthesis. They were able to determine that under conditions of high light and low CO2 concentration, the photosynthetic rate was temperature dependent and concluded that the recovery or fixation of CO2 based on normal biochemical reactions that are temperature dependent. At an excess of CO2 and low amount of light, however, no influence of the temperature was found. They concluded that reactions induced by light, do not depend on the temperature. This fact is generally for photochemical reactions.

In addition, Blackman dealt with the classification of algae, so it 's official botanical author abbreviation " FFBlackman " was assigned.

Publications

• FF Blackman and GLC Matthaei: Experimental researches on vegetable assimilation and respiration. In: Phil Trans Roy. Soc. Series B, Volume 197, 1905, p 47
• F. F. Blackman: Optima and limiting factors. Ann. Bot 19 (1905 ) 281-295.