{"id":446,"date":"2023-07-24T17:39:55","date_gmt":"2023-07-24T17:39:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/?p=446"},"modified":"2025-02-04T17:48:35","modified_gmt":"2025-02-04T17:48:35","slug":"biologist-ernest-everett-just","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/2023\/07\/24\/biologist-ernest-everett-just\/","title":{"rendered":"Biologist Ernest Everett Just"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>THE VAST WONDER OF THE WORLD<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Biologist Ernest Everett Just<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>By Melina Mangal<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Contrary to perceptions, the presence of African Americans has been in every field, including science. This has not been a recent phenomenon\u2014Black History Month has shown us that, thereby changing the perceptions and teaching our children our legacy. Such is the case with Melina Mangal\u2019s children\u2019s book, The Vast Wonder of the World: Biologist Ernest Everett Just.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Born in 1883 in Charleston, South Carolina, Just\u2019s interest in the world of water developed at an early age. He faced the realities of life for African Americans\u2014his father dying when he was four, surviving typhoid fever, experiencing hurricanes and the fire that destroyed the school his mother built, and on top of that, the Jim Crow segregation laws pervading the South. In spite of these challenges, he never stopped observing nature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Continuing his education up North, his calling came into clarity; the study of cells. As such, he became a biology professor at Howard University. His work made breakthroughs through teaching observation of living things in their natural environment. Ultimately, his research garnered him the NAACP Spingarn Medal for achievement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">His ideas and research on cells were warmly received and respected by scientists around the world. Sadly, that wasn\u2019t the case in the U.S., and he eventually moved to Europe to become an independent researcher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At the end of the day, Just\u2019s work as a biologist paved the way for such studies as today\u2019s stem cell research, and it all began with a child\u2019s interest in the world of water and cells. In his words, \u201cEnvironment and organism are one; neither can be separated from the other.\u201d Another quote of his is a telling and ironic commentary whenever he came from Europe to the U.S.: upon seeing the Statue of Liberty he said, \u201cThis is where my liberty ends.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mangal delivers an insightful book that combines history and the wonder of what comes from the discovery of a child. Her author notes on Ernest Everett Just are invaluable, providing the context of the personal and world events that took place during Just\u2019s life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Vast Wonder of the World is available through Amazon and the Minnesota Black Authors Expo website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Thank you, Melina, for your work and your research to remind us of the accomplishments of this extraordinary scientist in our history and paying it forward.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>THE VAST WONDER OF THE WORLD Biologist Ernest Everett Just By Melina Mangal Contrary to perceptions, the presence of African Americans has been in every field, including science. This has not been a recent phenomenon\u2014Black History Month has shown us that, thereby changing the perceptions and teaching our children our legacy. Such is the case [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":447,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23,9],"tags":[98,110,88],"class_list":["post-446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","category-opinion","tag-african-americans","tag-black-history-month","tag-minnesota-black-authors-expo","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Biologist-Ernest-Everett-Just-e1738691241415.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=446"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":448,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446\/revisions\/448"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}