Walther Flemming, a biologist working in Prague, tried to uncover the cause of abnormal cell division, although using salamander eggs rather than human cells as his subject. To understand cell division, Flemming had to visualize the inner anatomy of the cell. In 1879, Flemming thus stained dividing salamander cells with aniline, the all-purpose chemical dye used by Paul Ehrlich. The stain highlighted a blue, threadlike substance located deep within the cell’s nucleus that condensed and brightened to a cerulean shade just before cell division. Flemming called his blue-stained structures
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