From the beginnings: How biochemistry has evolved as a discipline

Biochemists see in the cell-free fermentation experiments of Eduard Buchner in 18971, the birth date of their discipline (also named biological chemistry), before the introduction of the word in the titles of journals and the names of learned societies2. These experiments tolled the death knell of the vitalistic claims that chemistry in organisms was different from organic chemistry in the laboratory. They opened the way to the elucidation of the central metabolic pathways.