Google celebrates chemist Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge's 225th birth anniversary with an adorable GIF doodle

Google chose an adorable GIF for the doodle of German analytical chemist Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge on his 225th birth anniversary.

The GIF doodle features Runge drinking hot coffee which makes his eyes wobble every time he takes a sip. His cat, sitting right next to him, also makes googly eyes in the animated GIF.


Born outside of Hamburg in 1795, Runge played an important role in history due to an accident, and a chance encounter with a famous chemist that resulted in the discovery of caffeine.

Despite being the son of a Lutheran pastor, he showed interest in chemistry from an early age. He began conducting experiments as a teenager. During one such experiment, Runge accidentally splashed a drop of belladonna extract in his eye. He later saw how that dilated his pupils.

Ten years later, his mentor and renowned chemist & inventor Johann Wolfgang Döbereiner at the University of Jena asked Runge to reproduce belladonna’s effects for one of his friends - the writer and polymath Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Goethe was impressed by the then 25-year-old chemist and handed him a bag of rare coffee beans. The writer wanted the young chemist to analyse coffee's chemical composition. Runge isolated the active ingredient that we know as caffeine today.

In the statement, Google mentioned, "After earning his doctorate from the University of Berlin, Runge went on to teach at the University of Breslau until 1831 when he left academia to take a position at a chemical company. During this time, he invented the first coal tar dye and a related process for dyeing clothes. His contributions to the world also include: being one of the first scientists to isolate quinine (a drug used to treat malaria), considered an originator of paper chromatography (an early technique for separating chemical substances), and even devising a method for extracting sugar from beet juice."

"Here’s to Runge, without whom the pain of forgoing one’s morning cup of coffee might never have had a scientific explanation!"