Julius Ferdinand Ruska (9 February 1867, Bühl, Baden – 11 February 1949,

Schramberg Schramberg is a town in the district of Rottweil, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated in the eastern Black Forest, 25 km northwest of Rottweil. With all of its districts (Talstadt, Sulgen, Waldmössingen, Heiligenbronn, Schönbron ...

) was a German orientalist,

historian of science The history of science covers the development of science from ancient times to the present. It encompasses all three major branches of science: natural, social, and formal. Science's earliest roots can be traced to Ancient Egypt and Mesopo ...

and educator. He was a critical scholar of

alchemical Alchemy (from Arabic: ''al-kīmiyā''; from Ancient Greek: χυμεία, ''khumeía'') is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practiced in China, India, the Muslim world, ...

literature, and of

Islamic science Science in the medieval Islamic world was the science developed and practised during the Islamic Golden Age under the Umayyads of Córdoba, the Abbadids of Seville, the Samanids, the Ziyarids, the Buyids in Persia, the Abbasid Caliphate an ...

, raising many issues on attributions and sources of the texts, and providing translations. The range of his studies was wide, including the '' Emerald Tablet'', a basic

hermetic Hermetic or related forms may refer to: * of or related to the ancient Greek Olympian god Hermes * of or related to Hermes Trismegistus, a legendary Hellenistic figure based on the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian god Thoth ** , the ancient and m ...

text. From 1924 he headed an institute in

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...

, where he has been a student. Of his seven children,

Ernst Ruska Ernst August Friedrich Ruska (; 25 December 1906 – 27 May 1988) was a German physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1986 for his work in electron optics, including the design of the first electron microscope. Life and career Erns ...

and

Helmut Ruska Helmut Ruska (June 7, 1908, Heidelberg - August 30, 1973) was a German physician and biologist from Heidelberg. After earning his medical degree, he spent several years working as a physician at hospitals in Heidelberg and Berlin. During this time, ...

were distinguished in their fields.

Books

Sources

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External links

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Comprehensive biographical and bibliographical site
1867 births 1949 deaths People from Bühl (Baden) People from the Grand Duchy of Baden German scholars Historians of science German orientalists German male non-fiction writers Academic staff of the Humboldt University of Berlin {{Germany-academic-bio-stub