Enzymes - A hunk of meat, a hawk, and a discovery
A hunk of meat, a hawk, and a discovery
Rene Antoine de Reaumur was a French scientist who wanted to know how food was digested. In 1750, he tried a unique experiment. Tying a very tiny metal cage containing a small piece of meat on a long string, he taught his pet hawk to swallow the cage. The string hung out of the bird's mouth, and de Reaumur very carefully pulled out the cage after fifteen minutes without injuring the animal. The meat did not look the same. Its color was gone and it looked puffy and soft. He tried the experiment two more times, leaving the cage inside longer. The meat was totally soft after one hour, and after three it looked like lumpy soup. De Reaumur did not know he had witnessed the work of enzymes, but his experiments gave other scientists the first clue about their existence and function.
[The entire page is 169 words long]
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