chemistry

Otto Neubauer

Otto Neubauer is a chemistry 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 Otto Neubauer rather than just read about it. In short: Otto Neubauer (8 April 1874 – 24 November 1957) was a Bohemia-born German physician and biochemist who was responsible for several clinical diagnostic innovations including the Neubauer-Fischer test to evaluate kidney function and the Neubauer counting chamber. Life and work Neubauer was born in Karlsbad (then in Bohemia, Austria-Hungary) to physician Wolfgang and Hedwig Arnstein née Sadler.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Otto Neubauer (8 April 1874 – 24 November 1957) was a Bohemia-born German physician and biochemist who was responsible for several clinical diagnostic innovations including the Neubauer-Fischer test to evaluate kidney function and the Neubauer counting chamber.

Life and work Neubauer was born in Karlsbad (then in Bohemia, Austria-Hungary) to physician Wolfgang and Hedwig Arnstein née Sadler. In 1892, he passed the examination for qualifying admission to a university after studying at the humanistic gymnasium of Chomutov. He then went to the German University in Prague he received a medical degree in 1898 and became interested in physiological chemistry through the influence of Karl H. Huppert. He then joined as an assistant to Friedrich von Müller at Basel. He moved to Munich in 1902. In 1908, he joined the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München and served in a reserve hospital during World War I. His major work in this period was on amino acid metabolism in human health and disease. Neubauer and Konrad Fromherz examined the role of pyruvic acid in fermentation. He innovated several clinical diagnostics including tests of peptolytic activity. Gastric juice incubated with glycyl-tryptophan for twenty-four hours tested with bromine to see if free tryptophan causes a rose-violet colour was used as an indication of stomach carcinoma. In 1918, he became head physician at Schwabinger Hospital, working there until his dismissal by the Nazi government in June 1933 as a person of Jewish ancestry. In 1920, he developed a blood pressure measuring device and still later a measuring slide (known as a Neubauer slide or Neubauer counting chamber) for counting cells under a microscope. With assistance and support from The Society for the Protection of Science and Learning, he immigrated to England in 1939 along with his wife Lilly Caroline (1876-1962, who was married to composer Fritz Cassirer until his death) and worked in Oxford for the remainder of his life. His contributions included studies on arsenic and other chemicals as carcinogens. Neubauer's students included Siegfried Thannhauser, Rudolf Schindler, and Konrad Dobriner.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Otto Neubauer

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

In research: Otto Neubauer appears in chemistry 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 Otto Neubauer 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: Otto Neubauer is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1874 births, 1957 deaths, Academic staff of the Munich University of Applied Sciences, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Otto Neubauer 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 Otto Neubauer in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Otto Neubauer in simple terms?

Why does Otto Neubauer matter?

Because it connects several chemistry 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 Otto Neubauer?

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 Otto Neubauer.