Oskar MinkowskiBorn 13 Jan 1858; died 18 Jul 1931 at age 73.German physiologist and pathologist who introduced the concept that diabetes results from suppression of a pancreatic substance (later found to be the hormone insulin). After studying how fat is metabolized by the body, in 1889, Oskar Minkowski and Joseph von Mering uncovered the role of the pancreas in diabetes. In an experiment in which they removed the pancreas from a dog, it consequently developed diabetes. He was the brother of mathematician Hermann Minkowski (whose idea of a four-dimensional or "Minkowski space", laid the mathematical foundation of Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity). Oskar's son, Rudolf Minkowski was a physicist and astronomer. |
