Who was Hans Christian Gram? Google celebrates microbiologist 166th birthday with doodle

New Delhi, Sep 13: Search engine giant Google on Friday is celebrating Danish microbiologist Hans Christian Gram's 166th birthday with a new Google Doodle.

The Google Doodle was illustrated by Mikkel Sommer, a Danish guest artist, who depicted the important work of Gram, who died 4 November 1938.

The Doodle features everything, from Gram doing an experiment to a closer look focusing on his glasses, a microscope and finally, and most importantly, bacteria samples.

Born on 14th September, Hans Christian Gram is credited with devising a staining technique to identify and classify different types of bacteria. The technique is still used today and has become the first stop for microbiologists identifying bacteria.

Gram was the son of a professor of jurisprudence Frederik Terkel Julius Gram and mom Louise Christiane Roulund. In his early life, Gram was focused on natural science but after earning a B.A. at the Copenhagen Metropolitan School and working as an assistant in botany at a zoo, he became interested in medicine.

Gram earned his M.D. in 1878 from the University of Copenhagen and held positions in several Copenhagen hospitals as an assistant.

The fact that Hans Christian Gram's invention is still valuable after more than a century is enough to show how important and respected he is in his discipline.