Remembering marine biologist Dr. E.E. Just
By JACK RUDLOE
Gulf Specimen
I’d like to add a sad addition to Gerald Ensley’s recent excellent article in the Tallahassee Democrat, “If not for FAMU , we would all be poorer.”
Sometime back in the 1960’s FAMU had a large piece of land on the shores of the Ochlocknee Bay which they planned to use as a marine laboratory. It had dormitories, which were old Camp Gordon Johnson army barracks where students stayed (same surplus barracks that I used to start Gulf Specimen), a dock and ponds for growing fish. It could have been a great asset to estuarine science, because in my view Ochlocknee Bay is one of the unique estuaries in the world. Tarpon raise there, so do Gulf sturgeon and striped bass. It is a nursery ground for white shrimp. Blue crabs abound there, and there are millions of clam shells where native Americans who lived on the shores for thousands of years were harvesting them.
If the land were not stolen or traded away by a powerful Tallahassee legislator and land speculators The Ochlocknee Bay Marine Station and the buildings raised it could have could have made a major contribution to marine science instead of real estate for the wealthy. Who knows, it might have produced another genius like Ernest E. Just, the famous black marine embryologist who while working at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts in the 1920s first discovered the spark of life that occurs when sperm meets egg. The scientific legacy of EE Just remains a defining factor in the evolution of marine biology. His fascination with the world of science led to his discovery of “The Spark’– the mystery of creation and the flash that occurs when the egg and sperm unite.
In 1939 he wrote, “The egg cell… is a universe. And if we could but know it, we would feel in its minute confines the majesty and beauty which match the vast wonder of the world outside us. In it march events that give us the story of all life from the first moment when somehow out of chaos came life and living. That first tremendous upheaval that gave this earth its present contour finds its counterpart in the breaking up of the surface of the egg which conditions all life to follow.”
Born in Charleston, South Carolina on Aug. 14th, 1883, Dr. Just was a zoologist and a marine biologist known for his experiments with marine invertebrates. Graduating Magna cum Laude from Dartmouth College in 1907, and Magnum cum Laude from The University of Chicago with a PhD. in zoology and physiology in 1916, he was an award winning African American scientist whose experiments revolutionized the field of cellular biology.
We are seeking a donation of $50,000 to build a new exhibit at Gulf Specimen Marine lab and Aquarium to show the miracle of life with sea urchin eggs and honor Just’s groundbreaking discovery in cellular biology, and the victory that he achieved despite the seemingly insurmountable hurdles that he faced throughout his lifetime.
Jack Rudloe is founder of Gulf Specimen Marine Lab in Panacea.
