Google Celebrates Polish Inventor Rudolf Stefan Weigl's 138th Birthday With A Doodle

Rudolf Weigl had produced the first-ever effective vaccine against one of the oldest and most infectious diseases - epidemic typhus.

Google today celebrated the 138th birthday of Polish inventor, doctor, and immunologist Rudolf Weigl with a doodle. He had produced the first-ever effective vaccine against one of the oldest and most infectious diseases - epidemic typhus. The search engine's doodle shows the Polish inventor holding a test tube in his gloved hands and drawings of lice on the wall on one side and a human body on the other. The illustrator has spelled out Google with a microscope, beakers on bunsen burners, and test tubes in holders all placed on a lab table. Rudolf Stefan Weigl was born in the Austro-Hungarian town of Przerow - in the modern-day Czech Republic - on September 2, 1883. He went on to study biological sciences at Poland's Lwow University and in 1914, he was appointed as a parasitologist in the Polish Army. As millions across Eastern Europe were plagued by typhus, Mr Weigl became determined to stop its spread. Body lice were known to carry the typhus-infecting bacteria Rickettsia prowazekii, so the inventor adapted the tiny insect into a laboratory specimen.