science

Johanna Döbereiner

Johanna Döbereiner is a science 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 Johanna Döbereiner rather than just read about it. In short: Johanna Liesbeth Kubelka Döbereiner (28 November 1924 – 5 October 2000) was a Brazilian agronomist and pioneer in soil biology. Biography Döbereiner was born in Ústí nad Labem in Czechoslovakia (now in the Czech Republic) on 28 November 1924.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Johanna Liesbeth Kubelka Döbereiner (28 November 1924 – 5 October 2000) was a Brazilian agronomist and pioneer in soil biology.

Biography Döbereiner was born in Ústí nad Labem in Czechoslovakia (now in the Czech Republic) on 28 November 1924. Her family were German Czechs. Her father was Professor Paul Kubelka and her mother Margarethe Kubelka. Her name Döbereiner came from her husband Jürgen Döbereiner, who she met in Munich. Interestingly, her name became similar to the famous chemist Johann Wolfgang Döbereiner, who was born in Hof, Bavaria, in the border with Bohemia. Johanna Döbereiner received her degree from the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU), but settled in Brazil and became a Brazilian citizen in 1956. Her early work includes studies of Azospirillum and other bacteria that could be useful to Brazilian soil. She later played an important role in Brazil's soybean production by encouraging a reliance on varieties that solely depended on biological nitrogen fixation. As a consequence of her research and ideas, numerous soybean plantations in Brazil are now completely supplied for nitrogen (N) by rhizobia and not using any N-fertilizers. This movement has had big benefits, because Brazil, together with the U.S., are the main producers of soybean in the world (ca. 50% world production). Considering that soybeans are one of the most important global sources of protein (mainly fed to animals that in turn becomes animal protein for human consumption), this implies that significant amount of global protein comes from an ecological biological process without the use of industrial chemical fertilizers. This was one of the reasons that Johanna Döbereiner was indicated for the Nobel Prize in the 1990s. The Johanna Döbereiner Biological Resources Center was named in her honour in 2017.

See also Timeline of women in science Ana Maria Primavesi

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Johanna Döbereiner

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Johanna Döbereiner claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, 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 Johanna Döbereiner 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 Johanna Döbereiner 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 Johanna Döbereiner

In research: Johanna Döbereiner appears in science 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 Johanna Döbereiner 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: Johanna Döbereiner is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1924 births, 2000 deaths, 20th-century Brazilian women scientists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Johanna Döbereiner 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 Johanna Döbereiner in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Johanna Döbereiner 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 Johanna Döbereiner out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Johanna Döbereiner in simple terms?

Johanna Liesbeth Kubelka Döbereiner (28 November 1924 – 5 October 2000) was a Brazilian agronomist and pioneer in soil biology. Biography Döbereiner was born in Ústí nad Labem in Czechoslovakia (now in the Czech Republic) on 28 November 1924.

Why does Johanna Döbereiner matter?

Because it connects several science 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 Johanna Döbereiner?

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 Johanna Döbereiner.