biology

George Eliava

George Eliava is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand George Eliava rather than just read about it. In short: George Eliava (Georgian: გიორგი ელიავა; 13 January 1892 – 10 July 1937) was a Georgian-Soviet microbiologist who worked with bacteriophages (viruses that infect bacteria). Eliava was born in Sachkhere.

Key takeaways

George Eliava belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect George Eliava to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of George Eliava from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

George Eliava (Georgian: გიორგი ელიავა; 13 January 1892 – 10 July 1937) was a Georgian-Soviet microbiologist who worked with bacteriophages (viruses that infect bacteria). Eliava was born in Sachkhere. From 1909 to 1912 he studied medicine, at Novorossiysk University, continued his studies in Geneva until 1914, and graduated at Moscow University in 1916. The same year, he became head of the bacteriological laboratory in Trabzon, in 1917 he headed the bacteriological laboratory in Tbilisi. In 1918–1921, and again in 1926–1927, he worked at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, where he met Félix d'Hérelle, the co-discoverer of bacteriophages. Eliava got excited about the potential of bacteriophages in medical applications, and brought the research (and, eventually, d'Hérelle), to Tbilisi. In 1923, Eliava founded a bacteriological institute in Tbilisi on the basis of the laboratory he headed since 1921, to research and promote phage therapy. After his death, the institute was renamed George Eliava Institute in 1988. Since 1927, Eliava held the chair for hygiene at the medical faculty of Tbilisi, and since 1929 the chair for microbiology. In 1934, the Tbilisi Black Death Centre was founded and headed by Eliava. In 1937, Eliava was arrested and (together with his wife) executed as a "People's Enemy", either for being an intellectual or for competing for a woman with Lavrenti Beria, chief of the secret police to Joseph Stalin.

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with George Eliava

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what George Eliava claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to George Eliava before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about George Eliava ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of George Eliava

In research: George Eliava appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses George Eliava in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: George Eliava is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1892 births, 1937 deaths, Great Purge victims from Georgia (country), so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for George Eliava outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study George Eliava in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what George Eliava means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain George Eliava out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is George Eliava in simple terms?

Why does George Eliava matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study George Eliava?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on George Eliava.