Country Info | Language and Culture | Scientific Endeavor in Slovenia - a Historical Overview

The Freising Text - the earliest known Slovene and Slavonic document in the Latin script - was written around the year 1000. The humanist movement in Slovenia began a few centuries later, at the end of the 14th and the beginning of the 15th century. It gave rise to a whole range of great thinkers who were active in European courts and universities, including: Tomaz Prelokar (see character set), a bishop and tutor of the future Holy Roman Emperor Maximillian I; Bernard Preger, Dean of the University of Vienna and author of a very successful Latin textbook with German annotation (about 30 editions); Matija Hvale, professor at the University of Vienna and a proponent of the universal philosophy of nature; Andrej Perlah, Dean of the University of Vienna and a scholar of encyclopaedic knowledge; Sigismund Herberstein, the diplomat from Vipava who acquainted Europe in his travel book from Russia (1st edition 1549) with that distant, little-known country. In 1531, Turkey was described in a similar way by Benedikt Kuripecic from Gornji Grad. A more recent representative of humanism in Slovenia was Dr. Sanctorio Sanctori, a native of Koper, who worked in Italy at the end of the 15th and beginning of the 16th century. He introduced precise measurements - chiefly of body temperature - into medicine, and with his research of the digestive system, he was also a forerunner of modern physiology.

Another milestone in Slovenian scientific history was the discovery of Mercury in Idrija in 1490. Idrija became the second biggest mine of this metal in the world, after Almaden in Spain. The subsequent 500-year extraction of Mercury in Idrija was a powerful stimulus to the development of science, medicine and technology in Slovenia and in the greater European continent. In the first half of the 16th century the famous physician and alchemist Paracelsus visited Idrija. He became the first to use Mercury systematically as a medicine. In the second half of the 18th century, Johann Anton Scopoli, a well-known physician from the Tyrol, and Balthazar Hacquet, a physician and natural scientist from Brittany, worked near the mine. Both of them described the mine in Idrija and its geological, technological and ecological properties in their works and passed on the knowledge of the peculiarities of Slovenia to Europe. Franc Anton Steinberg scientifically described the operation of the mine as early as the first half of the 18th century. The Idrian geodesist Jozef Mrak, who designed the well-known flood dams in 1772, worked with Scopoli and Hacquet. In the second half of the 19th century, Marko Vicenc Lipold combined science and technology in managing the mine by introducing a modern geological approach to mining. The tradition was carried on after the Second World War by Ivan Mlakar, the geologist, who, through a precise scientific approach, mastered the extremely complicated Idrian deposit and set up the internationally renowned and recognized Idrian Geological School.

With the publication of Protestant works in the middle of the 16th century, the Slovene literary movement began. This was immediately followed by the Catholic Counter-Reformation. In 1583, the Jesuits took over education. In the 17th century, they introduced the advanced study of theology, followed by philosophy and law at the beginning of the 18th century. The first scientific association in Slovenia was founded in Ljubljana in 1688 or 1689, with the beginning of the movement to establish a Slovene University. The year 1689 also saw the publication of the momentous work, The Glory of the Duchy of Carniola by Janez Vajkard Valvasor. This great scholar described the nature and life in the greater part of Slovenia and neighboring regions in four thick, richly illustrated volumes. In his works, he tried to gather the entire body of contemporary knowledge about this part of Europe. As a result of his study of the complex mechanisms behind the intermittent Lake Cerknica, Valvasor became a member of the Royal Society in London.

One of the people who, towards the end of the 17th century, made efforts to establish a Slovene Academy of Sciences, was Marko Gerbec, a physician of high international repute. In 1693, the Academia Operosorum Labacensium was established with his assistance. This academy aimed to bring together the most creative contemporary thinkers and it significantly enriched musical, architectural and artistic creativity in Slovenia.

In the 18th century, the majority of the most prominent Slovenians worked abroad: Augustin Hallerstein from Menges became President of the Mathematical Board, and astronomer and mandarin at the Chinese court in Peking; the widely accomplished Ziga Popovic established oceanography as a science with his book Essay on the Sea (1750); in 1752, the physician Anton Marko Plencic suggested that microorganisms might be the cause of infectious diseases; Anton Jansa became Professor of Apiculture at the Viennese Court - his complete treatise on apiculture was published posthumously in 1775; the mathematician and ballistics expert Jurij Vega established ballistics as a scientific discipline. His logarithmic tables were published between 1783 and 1797, and they remained the most commonly used technique for calculation until the introduction of electronic computers. The mathematical approach to science influenced the work of the philosopher Akantra Mislej, who produced a universal philosophical-mathematical system in 1814.

The main figure in the progress made during the Enlightenment towards the end of the 18th century in Slovenia was the entrepreneur, Baron Ziga Zois. As a patron and inventor, he encouraged literary and scientific aspirations. Among other accomplishments, in 1778, Zois funded the first ascent of Mount Triglav, at 2864 meters the highest Slovene peak and the national symbol. He was also the key supporter of the first attempted flight in a hot-air balloon in 1784. From his circle emerged Anton Tomaz Linhart, the first Slovene dramatist and an early Slovene historian, and Jernej Kopitar, who in 1809 compiled the first scientific Grammar of the Slovene Language. The surgeon Vincent Kern, a contemporary, was the most respected man in his field in Vienna. He was especially renowned for his success in treating post-operative infections, common in the pre-aseptic era.

During the years of French occupation (1809-1813), Ljubljana was the capital of the Province of Illyria. However, this period was not long enough for the realization of ambitious plans to reorganize the educational system and establish a university, which would include a medical faculty. In the period that followed, conservative and reactionary tendencies prevailed throughout most of Europe. These tendencies were also reflected during the Congress of the Holy Alliance, which took place in Ljubljana in 1821. For a few days, the city became the center of Europe.

The beginning of the 19th century in Slovenia was marked by the introduction of steam power. In 1818, the first steamship sailed from Trieste to Venice. In 1819, the first industrial steam engine was set up in Trieste, followed by the first steam engine in Ljubljana in 1835. Soon after, steam power was used for the first time in the Idrija mine. Josef Ressel, an inventor of Czech-German origin, developed his idea for a ship's screw propeller while he was working in Ljubljana; he patented it in 1827 and in Trieste two years later, he became the first in the world to use it in civil navigation. The introduction of steam power reached its peak in Slovenia in 1849 and 1857, when the railway line from Vienna reached Ljubljana and Trieste respectively.

Other events of importance included the opening of the Museum of the Province of Carniola in 1831. Among the inventors, Janez Puhar excelled in 1842 with his glass plate photography. In 1830, Frederik Baraga, a missionary who later became a bishop, started working among the Ottawa and Chippewa Indians in Canada. He was an important researcher of ethnology and linguistics and the author of the first grammar of one of the Indian languages. In 1850, another Slovenian missionary, Ignacij Knoblehar, named Abuna Soliman, advanced 4100 km along the White Nile from the Nile Delta, reaching farther than any other contemporary explorer. In the period between 1852 and 1875, Franc Miklosic wrote his masterpiece, an extensive Comparative Grammar of Slavic Languages. In 1886 the same author published his dictionary of Slavic languages. In 1853, Peter Kozler tried to define the ethnic borders of the Slovene counties for the first time. In 1854, the Viennese geographer Adolf Schmidl established speleology as a new world science with his work on the Slovene Karst caves.

In 1879, Jozef Stefan, director of the Physics Institute in Vienna, founder of the Austrian School of Theoretical Physics and Vice-President of the Austrian Academy of Science, discovered the law of radiation. This remains the only law of natural science to be discovered by a Slovenian. Stefan was head of the scientific board and of the laboratory at the great international exhibition of electrical engineering in Vienna in 1883. With the help of the best contemporary equipment and top experts, he established the measurement of electricity -- and thus the science of electrical engineering. The age of electricity started in Slovenia as early as 1880, when the first electric light bulb was switched on in Trzic; in 1884 the first public power station began to operate in Skofja Loka, while in 1888, a steam-powered generating station was built in Ljubljana.

These advances were unfortunately temporarily set back by a natural disaster. In 1895, Ljubljana was struck by a devastating earthquake. The 'quake was followed by rebuilding, carried out using the modern urban designs of the architect Maks Fabiani. Two years after the earthquake, Albin Belar, professor of physics, established the first modern European earthquake monitoring system, one of the first in the world, at the Ljubljana Polytechnic. In 1898, Baron Anton Codelli, who later became a pioneer in the introduction of long-range radio links (Africa-Europe) and inventor of a television system (patented in 1928), brought the first car to Ljubljana. In 1901, Ljubljana acquired an electric tram and thus entered the 20th century. Edo Slajmer, a native of Croatia and a determined reformer of surgery in Slovenia with the professional reputation of being the best surgeon in Vienna, was also working in Ljubljana at that time.

Franc Wels, a Slovenian engineer, developed the world's first flying wing, basing his design on the shape of a plant seed; using this aircraft, in 1906 he completed the first powerless flights in Austria-Hungary. At the end of 1909, Edvard Rusjan was the first to fly a power-plane in Slovenia and this region of Europe. In 1911, Ivan Slokar was granted a patent for the invention of a powered aircraft with two revolving rotors instead of wings. Such aircraft, however, only became technically feasible 25 years later. In 1914, Julij Nardin, a professor of physics at the Idrija Technical High School, worked on a patent application of his idea for a two-stage rocket. In the sea, the rocket would become a self-propelled torpedo. It would operate using a program printed on a perforated strip. Thus Nardin was one of the first to introduce cybernetics to Slovenia. Dagobert Mueller successfully tested his construction of a hovercraft in 1916 (literature cites the year 1955 as the year of this invention). At that time, a physician, Fritz Pregl, who worked in Graz, developed a microanalysis technique for organic chemistry, for which he received the Nobel Prize in 1923, becoming the only Slovene scientist to receive the award.

In 1919, after the First World War, the Slovene University was founded in Ljubljana. Some of the first university professors were already internationally renowned Slovene scientists. Among them were: Josip Plemelj, who became famous in 1906 by solving Rieman's problem of differential equations (which many thought was insoluble); Maks Samec, a chemist, who became famous through his discoveries in the chemistry of starch; Samec's colleague Marius Rebek, who later worked in Graz, where he devoted himself to the chemistry of cellulose and paper; Milan Vidmar, an electrical engineer and leading expert on the transmission of electrical power, and on transformers in particular; and the architect Joze Plecnik, who began to shape Ljubljana into a Slovene Athens in the late twenties. In 1933, a skyscraper was built in the Slovene capital on earthquake-safe principles. It was designed by the architect Vladimir Subic, and was at the time the highest residential building in Europe.

Ivan Regen was one of the first Slovene scientists to work abroad after the First World War. He was renowned for the establishment of a new branch of biological science - bioacoustics. Fran Jesenko, a botanist and geneticist active in the first half of the 20th century, was the first to prove that Mendel's Law of Genetics also applies for plant hybrids. In 1929, Herman Potocnik-Noordung wrote a book, entitled The Problem of Space Travel, a textbook for a generation of space pioneers. Potocnik was also the first to calculate the basis for a geostationary satellite to be positioned above the equator and intended to have a communication function. In the period between 1923 and 1925, when the most advanced innovations of this kind were taking place in the rest of the world, a Slovenian marine officer, Miroslav Stumberger, developed a rocket motor driven by liquid fuel.

Among the contemporary physicists and technicians who led the way towards the new scientific era were: Vladimir Slebinger, an electrical engineer, who successfully participated in adapting the cathode ray tube for television technology at the Hertz Institute in Berlin in 1930-1933; Venceslav Kozelj, an electrical engineer, who dealt with the theory of electrical engineering; and the first Slovene nuclear physicist Elmer Rebolj, who cooperated with Enrico Fermi. The mid-1930's marked a major turning point in Slovenia's technological tradition. One of the examples is the work of Anton Kuhelj, a physicist, who started aircraft construction on a strictly scientific basis.

In 1938, just prior to World War II, the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts was founded in Ljubljana. The first president was an expert in the Slovene language, Rajko Nahtigal. Today, the Academy has 64 regular members and the president is France Bernik, a well-known expert in comparative literature and literary theory. A major part of the Academy's scientific program is carried out by its Research Center, comprising 14 institutes. Many of the institutes have been named after some of the most renowned experts in their field. The Institute of the Slovene Language is named after Fran Ramovs, the greatest authority on the history of the Slovene language. The Institute of History is named after Milko Kos, who dedicated his central work to the questions of the origin, migration and adaptation of the Slovenes to Slovenia. The Institute of Art History is named after one of Slovenia's greatest historians, France Stele. The Institute of Geography is named after Anton Melik, whose extensive work Slovenia is still unequaled. The Paleontological Institute bears the name of its founder, geologist and paleontologist Ivan Rakovec. The Institute of Biology is named after Jovan Hadzi, the proponent of the theory of the evolution of lower metazoa.

After the War, the Jozef Stefan Institute developed into Slovenia's biggest research institution. Today, it employs close to 1,000 members of staff, more than half of whom are researchers. The Institute keeps abreast of the world's main developmental trends in at least ten fields. It is very actively involved in the international exchange of knowledge and personnel. Many Slovenian scientists from the Institute have joined renowned institutions abroad. The founder of the Institute, Anton Peterlin, for example, is an internationally recognized expert on giant molecules and polymerization. The Institute maintains fruitful contacts with former collaborators now working abroad. This is especially so of the team work in new and promising areas such as biochemistry. Researchers in the biochemical department, under the guidance of Vito Turk, named a newly discovered substance Stefin, after the name of the Institute.

The second biggest natural science research institution is the National Institute of Chemistry, established by Maks Samec, an internationally recognized expert on starches and the founder of the Samec School of Chemistry. Recently, the Institute once again confirmed its international reputation when Dusan Hadzi and associates introduced top-level structural research by using sophisticated spectrographic and electronic methods and nuclear magnetic resonance. Another internationally known chemical center attached to Ljubljana University was founded and subsequently developed into a UNESCO center for chemical studies by Aleksandra Kornhauser. Medical science with its ambitious research programs and interdisciplinary team work also continues to achieve important results of international standing.

Physics is one of the strong points of contemporary research activity in Slovenia. The work of Robert Blinc in the field of solid state physics, ferro-electrics, liquid crystals and nuclear magnetic resonance is at the forefront of research activity in the Jozef Stefan Institute. Savo Bratoz (Paris) has been very successful in the research of molecular movements in liquids. Bibijana Cujec (Canada) and Bogdan Povh (Germany) have approached the problem of antimatter with their research into elementary particles. Dusan Petrac (USA) works on low temperature physics in the NASA research programs. Anton Mavretic, also at NASA, works on developing the most sophisticated electronic systems for space probe sensors. Ciril Pipan (USA) first worked as a researcher in electro-optics (for example, the periscopes for the Polaris submarines), then became the organizer of research work for space laser technology.

Slovenia also has outstanding representatives in chemical science, among them Davorin Dolar in the field of ion exchangers and poly-electrolytes and Miha Tisler in the field of synthesis of new organic, primarily heterocyclic compounds.

A wide range of distinguished researchers are active in the field of technical sciences - the cyberneticist Janez Peklenik, for example, has developed a concept of decentralized, highly automated and flexibly connected production units. The units contain concentrations of information, knowledge and programs as a substitute for urban-area-concentrated industry, with their accompanying, virtually unmanageable, demographic, ecological and other problems. Ales Strojnik is another of those top-level experts who did not find adequate opportunities to develop their research work at home and have successfully continued their work abroad. Strojnik works mainly in the USA as a top expert in electronic microscopes and aircraft design. The electronics and biocybernetics expert Lojze Vodovnik has developed the basis for effective electrical stimulation and a range of its applications, particularly in medicine. His work represents a promising method for the restitution of certain nervous functions.

Internationally recognized results have also been recorded in Slovenia in the field of advanced medical research, e.g. in the study of nervous impulse transmission by the researchers Andrej O. Zupancic and Miroslav Brzin, both at the Institute for Pathological Physiology in Ljubljana. The most prominent representative of Slovenian medicine abroad is Joseph Milic-Emili, who researches the physiology of respiration and is one of the 1,000 most-cited authors from all branches of science. The international cooperation of Slovenian medical researchers, Jozef Zajicek, in Stockholm, Anton Zajdela in Paris and Marija Us-Krasovec in Ljubljana, enabled the development and wide application of a new method for the quick and painless diagnosis of cancer. Breakthroughs in the extremely complex modern methods of medical treatment call for a great deal of research work. Much credit for such pioneer work in heart surgery in Slovenia goes to Miro Kosak who, in 1986, performed an auto-transplantation of the heart as the second operation of that kind in the world. In the field of plastic surgery, credit must go to Marko Godina, who, in 1984, was the first in the world to re-attach a severed arm successfully to its original position after keeping it aside until the stump had healed. Igor Mekjavic is a young Slovenian medical researcher who built his reputation in Canada on the results of his study of the effects of increased air pressure, and, with the installation of a hyperbaric chamber, contributed to the development of a new branch of medicine at home. Slovenia has eminent representatives in other branches of medical science, too, including psychiatry, where Lev Milcinski is actively engaged in the very sensitive field of suicide prevention.

There are a number of prominent experts in many other professions. The psychologist Anton Trstenjak is an expert of broad profile, ranging from pastoral psychology to experimental and clinical psychology, and to the psychology of creativity. Many distinguished scientists are committed to the study of Slovenian literature and language, the latter field being most thoroughly dealt with recently by Joze Toporisic. In the field of historic sciences, a lively polemic has developed with Bogo Grafenauer's demand for a revision of the established interpretation of Slovenian history, and in particular the interpretation of the origins of the Slovenes. In theology, attention is focused on the treatise on the ethics of human decision-making by Joze Krasovec, who holds four doctoral degrees. Aleksander Bajt is engaged in economic forecasting, for which he has laid the scientific foundations. A very important task which demands our immediate attention is scientific development planning, since the overall development of mankind and its subsets - nations - depend to an ever greater extent on such planning. For this reason, efforts in Slovenia to achieve an overview of the (past and present) development of science, to master the methods of scientific forecasting and planning, in short, to establish the scientific study of science, have been strengthened lately.

Adapted by Mark Martinec from the: Science in Slovenia, published by the Ministry of Science and Technology of the Republic of Slovenia, Ljubljana, May 1993