In 1905, scientists introduced the word 'hormone,' transforming the study of animal growth and biology forever

It’s almost impossible to picture it now, but in the early 1900s, scientists barely had a clue how one organ “talked” to another. The dominant idea was that the body’s nerves were in charge of just about everything: digestion, reproduction, growth, and all the rest. The thought that tiny chemicals drifting through the blood could deliver messages? That just wasn’t on anyone’s radar. Not until 1905, when British physiologist Ernest Henry Starling gave that process a name: “hormone.”