Krogh's wife, Marie, became a physician and a renowned scientist in her own right. This move saved his own wife's life as well as numerous other lives and helped make Denmark's Novo-Nordisk the largest producer of insulin in the world today. His scientific discoveries extended from respiration, exercise physiology and capillary physiology into comparative osmoregulation, isotope studies, active transport of ions in plants and animals, and finally insect flight.Īnother dramatic story of Krogh's life began when he introduced insulin production in Denmark in 1922. His fame in Denmark and all over the world continued to grow until his death in 1949. This idea and his scientific proof were at the time so new and revolutionary that he was promptly (in 1920) awarded the Nobel Prize. Krogh's continued studies of how oxygen is supplied to the tissues led to his realization that the blood flow in the finest blood vessels, the capillaries, has to be regulated through a mechanism that opens and closes the capillaries according to the tissue's need for oxygen. His findings led him to challenge Christian Bohr's ideas about oxygen secretion, and when Bohr refused to accept his findings, Krogh unwillingly came into a painful conflict with his own mentor. Krogh's unusual ability to construct instruments and complex apparatuses and his intuitive understanding of physical principles made it possible for him to improve on Bohr's methods. August Krogh, the son of a brewer, studied zoology in Copenhagen and earned his doctoral degree under the physiologist Christian Bohr, the father of the world-renowned nuclear physicist Niels Bohr.

Nielsine by Ina Munch Christensen