Christian Bohr

Christian Harald Lauritz Peter Emil Bohr (14 February 1855 - 3 February 1911) was a Danish physician, father of the physicist and Nobel laureate Niels Bohr, as well as the mathematician and football player Harald Bohr and grandfather of another physicist and Nobel laureate Aage Bohr. He married Ellen Adler in 1881.

Christian Bohr
Born	Christian Harald Lauritz Peter Emil Bohr[1] (1855-02-14)14 February 1855[2] Copenhagen, Denmark[2]
Died	3 February 1911(1911-02-03) (aged 55) Copenhagen, Denmark
Resting place	Assistens Cemetery, Copenhagen
Education	Medical degree,[2] Doctorate in physiology
Occupation	Professor at University of Copenhagen
Known for	Cooperative binding Dead space Diffusing capacity Bohr effect Bohr equation
Spouse	Ellen Bohr[2] (married 1881)
Children	Jenny Bohr[2] (1883–1933)[2][3] Niels Bohr[2] (1885–1962) Harald Bohr[2] (1887–1951)
Parents	Henrik Georg Christian Bohr Caroline Agusta Lovise Rienestad

Personal life

He wrote his first scientific paper, "Om salicylsyrens indflydelse på kødfordøjelsen" ("On salicylic acid's influence on the digestion of meat"), at the age of 22. He received his medical degree in 1880, studied under Carl Ludwig at University of Leipzig, took a Ph.D. in physiology and was appointed professor of physiology at the University of Copenhagen in 1886.^[4]

On his religious views, Bohr was raised as a Lutheran Christian. He was an atheist in later life.^[5]

Christian Bohr is buried in the Assistens Kirkegård.

Physiology

In 1891, he was the first to characterize dead space.^[6][7]

In 1904, Christian Bohr described the phenomenon, now called the Bohr effect, whereby hydrogen ions and carbon dioxide heterotopically decrease hemoglobin's oxygen-binding affinity. This regulation increases the efficiency of oxygen release by hemoglobin in tissues, like active muscle tissue, where rapid metabolization has produced relatively high concentrations of hydrogen ions and carbon dioxide.