How long have we known about oxidative phosphorylation?
Oxidative phosphorylation
The field of oxidative phosphorylation began with the report in 1906 by Arthur Harden of a vital role for phosphate in cellular fermentation, but initially only sugar phosphates were known to be involved.[94] However, in the early 1940s, the link between the oxidation of sugars and the generation of ATP was firmly established by Herman Kalckar,[95] confirming the central role of ATP in energy transfer that had been proposed by Fritz Albert Lipmann in 1941.[96] Later, in 1949, Morris Friedkin and Albert L. Lehninger proved that the coenzyme NADH linked metabolic pathways such as the citric acid cycle and the synthesis of ATP.[97] The term oxidative phosphorylation was coined by Volodymyr Belitser in 1939.[98][99]
Wöhler synthesis
It is argued that organic chemistry did not actually start with this discovery in 1828 but 4 years earlier with the synthesis of oxalic acid in 1824 also by Wöhler and also from the inorganic precursor cyanogen. It is also argued that vitalism was not put to bed either in 1828. His contemporaries Liebig and Pasteur never abandoned vitalism and it took until 1845 when Kolbe repeated an inorganic – organic conversion of carbon disulfide to acetic acid before vitalism started to lose supporters in serious numbers.