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{{Short description|American zoologist, invertebrate biologist and ecologist}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name = Ralph Buchsbaum
| image =
| image_size =
| caption =
|birth_date = January 2, 1907
|birth_place = [[Chickasha, Oklahoma|Chickasha]], [[Oklahoma Territory]]
|death_date = {{death date and age|2002|02|11|1907|01|2}}
|death_place = [[Pacific Grove, California]]
| nationality = American
| field = invertebrate biology, ecology, education
| work_institution = [[University of Chicago]]<br />[[University of Pittsburgh]]
| doctoral_advisor =
| societies =
| prizes =
}}

'''Ralph Morris Buchsbaum''' (January 2, 1907 – February 11, 2002) was an American [[Zoology|zoologist]], [[invertebrate]] [[biologist]], and [[ecology|ecologist]]. His book ''Animals Without Backbones'', first published in 1938, was the first textbook in biology to be reviewed by ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' and featured in ''[[Life (magazine)|Life]]''.<ref name=time>{{Cite magazine |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,772212,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080110125737/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,772212,00.html |archive-date=January 10, 2008 |title= Science: No Backbones |magazine=Time |date= December 26, 1938 |access-date=2013-12-09 }}.</ref><ref name="clark"/> It has gone through several revisions
<ref name="clark">{{citation |first=Paul F. |last=Clark |title=Book reviews: Animals Without Backbones, 3rd ed |journal=Journal of Natural History |volume=22 |year=1988 |page=569 |url=http://taylorandfrancis.metapress.com/index/W568527L7720TN65.pdf |doi=10.1080/00222938800770381|issue=2}}.</ref><ref>{{citation |title=Book Reviews: Animals without Backbones |last1=Lorus |first1=J. |last2=Milne |first2=Margery J. |journal=Science |volume=109 |issue=2834 |year=1949 |pages=415–416|jstor=1677352|doi=10.1126/science.109.2834.404 }}.</ref><ref>Book reviews in ''Quarterly Review of Biology'', 1949, by B. Glass, 1977, by G. Hechtel, and 1989, by E.H. Kaplan.</ref> and is still in print,<ref>The longevity of this book was noted by the American Psychological Association in 1994.{{citation |last=Street |first=W. R. |year=1994 |title=A Chronology of Noteworthy Events in American Psychology |contribution=Addenda |contribution-url=http://www.cwu.edu/~warren/addenda.html |location=Washington, D.C. |publisher=American Psychological Association}} "29 Nov 1938 Ralph Buchsbaum's book ''Animals Without Backbones'' was first published. This enduring guide to invertebrate behavior has gone through several editions over a lifetime of more than 50 years." ({{ISBN|978-0-226-07874-8}}).</ref> and has been widely used as a textbook.<ref name="clark"/><ref>An [http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/issue_pdf/backmatter_pdf/107/2784.pdf advertisement for the 1948 revision of the book] in ''Science'' states that it was then in use as a text at over 200 colleges and universities. The ad also quotes a review by Carroll Lane Fenton for the [[American Association for the Advancement of Science]] calling it "the only book on invertebrates whose illustrations do justice to the subject".</ref> It was still being used as of 2013.<ref name=UA>{{cite web |title= University of Alberta, Zoology 250, Recommended Reading |url= http://www.biology.ualberta.ca/courses.hp/zool250/Z250.html |publisher= University of Alberta |first=A. Richard |last= Palmer |access-date= 2013-12-09 }} ([http://www.biology.ualberta.ca/courses.hp/zool250/readings.htm Z250 Readings])</ref>

Due to his 1938 book, Buchsbaum became known as a popularizer of science. In 1952 he founded the Boxwood Press, which published his own and others' science books. He also made a series of 29 educational films on biology for the [[Encyclopædia Britannica]], and visited [[Thailand]], [[Ecuador]], [[Ghana]], and [[India]], where he helped develop educational curricula in biology.<ref name="raft"/><ref name="sicb"/><ref>"UNESCO Aide in Accra", ''[[The Washington Post]]'', August 19, 1967. An article about Buchsbaum's arrival in [[Ghana]] as director of a [[UNESCO]] project there.</ref>

==Personal life and career==
Buchsbaum was born in 1907, in [[Chickasha, Oklahoma|Chickasha]], [[Indian Territory]], now part of [[Oklahoma]]. He earned his [[Ph.D.]] in [[zoology]] from the [[University of Chicago]] in 1932 and continued there as a faculty member until 1950, when he moved to the [[University of Pittsburgh]].

Buchsbaum married Mildred Shaffer (University of Chicago SB 1932, SM 1933). She was a research assistant who worked on anti-leukemia drugs.<ref name=mb/> The Buchsbaums had two children, a daughter Vicki and a son Monte. John Pearse was their son-in-law.<ref name=sicb/>

In 1952, he founded the Boxwood Press to publish his laboratory guide and later expanded into publishing other books, mostly about science. Mildred Shaffer Buchsbaum was an editor for the company. She died January 16, 1996; she was 83.<ref name=sicb/><ref name=mb/>

Although he is remembered for his books, his research was mainly in tissue culture. Ralph and Mildred Buchsbaum were the first to create [[chimera (genetics)|chimeras]] between the green alga ''[[Chlorella]]'' and chick [[fibroblast]] cells (Science 80: 408-409, 1934). He worked closely with [[Harold Urey]] to find a way to use the ratio of oxygen isotopes to determine temperatures in previous eras (Bull. Geol. Soc. Amer. 64: 1315-1326, 1953).<ref name=sicb/> (See [[Oxygen isotope ratio cycle]].)

He retired from the university in 1972 but continued to write and run the Boxwood Press. He died February 11, 2002, in [[Pacific Grove, California]], of [[heart failure]]. His son, [[Monte Buchsbaum]], will run the Boxwood Press.<ref name="raft">{{citation |url=http://www.seaotters.org/pdfs/spring02.pdf|title=The Passing of a Wonderful Biologist |journal=The Otter Raft |first=Jud |last=Vandevere |volume=66 |year=2002 }}</ref><ref name="sicb">{{citation|title=In Memoriam: Dr. Ralph Morris Buchsbaum |journal=Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology Newsletter |url=http://www.sicb.org/newsletters/nl04-2002/diz.php3 |date=Spring 2002}}.</ref>

==Works==
===Books===
Ralph Buchsbaum wrote or co-wrote at least fourteen books.,<ref name=sicb/> including these:
* ''Animals Without Backbones: An Introduction to the Invertebrates'' with Mildred Buchsbaum (three editions from 1938 - 1987)<ref name=mb>{{cite web |url=http://magazine.uchicago.edu/9606/9606BOBDeaths.html |title= Class News: Deaths: Faculty |publisher= The University of Chicago |work= The University of Chicago Magazine |date= June 1996 |access-date= 2013-12-09 }}. Mildred Shaffer Buchsbaum.</ref><ref name=mb2/> Ralph Buchsbaum took many of the photographs and photomicrographs.<ref name="sicb"/>
** The first two revisions were published in Pelican editions of two volumes and had illustrations by Elizabeth Buchsbaum Newhall,<ref name="clark"/> whose drawings of [[planaria]] inspired M.C. Escher.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://indianaillustrators.blogspot.ca/2016/08/elizabeth-buchsbaum-newhall-1909-1942.html | title=Elizabeth Buchsbaum Newhall (1909-1942)-Part Two | date=August 2016}}</ref>
** The third edition combined the two volumes. Vicki Pearse & John Pearse were added as co-authors along with Mildred Buchsbaum. Some illustrations were modified by Mildred Waldtrip. The text was extensively revised to reflect recent research and the bibliography was updated. (Third edition, University of Chicago Press: Chicago and London, 1987. 572 pages. Cloth {{ISBN|0-226-07873-6}}, paperback {{ISBN|0-226-07874-4}}.)<ref name="clark"/>
* ''Living Invertebrates'' with Vicki Pearse, John Pearse, & Mildred Buchsbaum (1987) was an expanded version of ''Animals without Backbones.''<ref name="sicb"/><ref name=mb/><ref name=mb2/> The 1987 edition has {{ISBN|0-86542-312-1}}.<ref name=squid >{{cite web |url= http://www.lamer.lsu.edu/pdfs/SOAR_squid_folio.pdf |title= Squidology: Resources |author= Kenneth Riley |author2=Kelly Riley |publisher= Louisiana Marine Resources |access-date= 2013-12-09 }}</ref>
* ''Balance in Nature'' with Bertha Parker (1941), Row, Peterson and Co.
* ''Basic Ecology'' with Mildred Buchsbaum (1957), Boxwood Press, Pacific Grove, CA<ref name=mb2>{{cite web |url= http://www.multiscaleproducts.com/diggles/ec/1996/EC96-03.html |title= In Memoriam: Mildred Buchsbaum |date= March 1996 |author= Charlie Geraci |author2=Louise Geraci |publisher= The Explorers Club, Northern California Chapter |access-date= 2013-12-09 }}</ref>
* ''The life in the sea (Condon lectures)'' (1958), Oregon State System of Higher Education
* ''The Lower Animals'' with Mildred Buchsbaum<ref name=mb2/> & [[:fr:Lorus Milne|Lorus Milne]] & Margery Milne (editions from 1923 - 1960)
* ''Thermal Stress on Cellular Structure and Function'' (1963)
* ''Laboratory Notes'' by Ralph Buchsbaum<ref name="sicb"/>

Edited:
* ''A Book That Shook the World; Anniversary Essays on Charles Darwin's Origin of Species'' (1958)

===Films===
Buchsbaum made twenty-nine educational films for the Encyclopædia Britannica Education Corporation and supplied photographs and photomicrographs for them. Titles include these:<ref name="sicb"/>
* ''The Sea''
* ''Gene Action''
* ''The Chick Embryo from Primitive Streak to Hatching''

===Papers===
Collaboration with Harold Urey:<ref name=arnold>{{cite journal |journal=Biographical Memoirs |title=Harold Clayton Urey 1893 - 1981 |year=1995 |publisher=National Academy of Sciences |last1=Arnold |first1=James R |author-link=James R. Arnold |last2=Bigeleisen |first2=Jacob |author-link2=Jacob Bigeleisen |last3=Hutchison |first3=Clyde A. Jr |author-link3=Clyde A. Hutchison, Jr. |pages=363–411 |url=http://www.nap.edu/readingroom/books/biomems/hurey.html |access-date= 2013-12-09}}</ref>
* Epstein, S.; Buchsbaum, R.; Lowenstam, H.A.; Urey, H.C. [http://gsabulletin.gsapubs.org/content/62/4/417.abstract Carbonate-water isotopic temperature scale]. Bull. Geol. Soc. Amer. April 1951, v. 62, no. 4, 417–426. ([http://gsabulletin.gsapubs.org/content/62/4/417.full.pdf+html Full text])
* Epstein, S.; Buchsbaum, R.; Lowenstam, H.A.; Urey, H.C. Revised carbonate-water isotopic temperature scale. Bull. Geol. Soc. Amer. 1953, 64, 1315–1325.

==Books published by Boxwood Press==
Boxwood published many titles in biology and natural history, as well as in history, biography, and other subject areas. They include these:<ref name=sicb/>
* ''Reproduction of Marine Invertebrates, Acmaeidae, Spionidae, Abalone: Gross and Fine Structure''
* ''Hydra and the Birth of Experimental Biology''
* ''Bird Year''
* ''Elephant Seals''
* ''Woody Plants in Winter''
* ''Tom Beveridge's Ozarks'' by Thomas L. Beveridge (1979)
* ''Monterey Bay Area: Natural History and Cultural Imprints''
* ''Año Nuevo, A Panama Forest and Shore''

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Buchsbaum, Ralph}}
[[Category:1907 births]]
[[Category:2002 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Chickasha, Oklahoma]]
[[Category:American ecologists]]
[[Category:20th-century American zoologists]]
[[Category:University of Chicago alumni]]
[[Category:University of Chicago faculty]]
[[Category:University of Pittsburgh faculty]]

Ralph Buchsbaum - Revision history

imported>GoodDay: Intro