The Greatest Individual

Louie Pasture was a famous french scientist who was born on December 27 1822 in the french town of Dole (Remember that everytime you chug down its canned fruit). He was the son of a veteran of Napoleons Grand Army, Louie Pasture and his family moved to Arbois where he completed his primary and secondary school education but this was only the beginning of his walk to greatness. He attended the Royal College where he got his BA degree then he went on to study chemistry at the Ecole Normale Superiuere in Paris. After all that he then gained a doctrate of philosophy and also a doctrate in physics. Louie then married the daughter a of rector in the University of Strasbourg, her name was Marie Laurent. They had five children together but unfortunately only two of them actually survived their childhood. Louie was drawn into studying fermentation when he was contacted by an industrialist who wanted to know why his alcohol was turning sour shortly after fermentation which is the process by which alcohol is made. This was what made Louie so famous. As his study progressed he found out that in fermentation the yeast that was used was actually an organism that was capable of anaerobic reproduction which basically reproduction without the use of oxygen. This process is now known as the pasteur effect. After many experiments and trials he finally found out that when wine(yay) was to be formed the right yeast had to be used or else lactic acid(yuck) would be produced. In addition to that the yeast the had to be heated to 50 degrees C to encourage the bacteria to produce alcohol rather than sour lactic acid this process is now know as pasteurization. Although this was developed for alcohol it was used for many other beverages such as milk and yohgurt. This process is very beneficial because it gives the drinks a longer shelf life and slows  down the process of it turning sour when not refrigerated. Everytime you open a bottle of milk and take a sip just think “Thanks to Louis my milk is not sour… mmhhhmmm refreshing”.

(Wow… He looks so Great!!! (Hint))

This was not the only important thing Louie did he also pioneered in many other aspects of science. For instance he disproved the theory of spontaneous generation which was a very prominent topic during his time. The conundrum was that although there were organisms in yeast and their growth was sped by the introduction of air where there always organisms in the air or where they spontaneously generated. This caused quite a problem in the scientific community because people were unsure of what the answer was and everyones experiments were not producing any results. Then guess who comes along and dispels all speculation… Yes Louis Pasture comes along and proves there are always invisible organisms in the air and that they are not spontaneoulsy generated. This shows how much of a pioneer he was in his field.

No I am not done yet, Louie’s greatness does not end in the lab here it still goes on.  He even saved the silk industry!!!! In France there was a disease that was killing the silkworms that France were using to support their industry. So the mayor had a brilliant idea “When the silkworms are dying and you dont know why. Who you gonna call???? Louie Pasteur!!!(X3). Through extensive research he found out that the silkworms were being killed by a parasite that was infecting them. Then he thought of a brilliant idea why not cordon off the infected worms and destroy them so that they do not infect the healthy worms. This led to the use of quarantine to better understand new diseases that could possibly become epidemics. With this Louie was able to single-handedly the silk business so next time you feel that smooth silk against your skin think “Louie saved the worms who made this.”

(Thanks to Louie finding a vaccine for the horrible disease Anthrax. This wont be you…)

He does it again!!! He’s not satified with the hat-trick nooo he wants more!!!! OMG I dont believe it he made the vaccine to the incurable disease rabies. Louie had been experimenting with animal saliva then he discovered the virus that resides in the nervous system of the animals that it affects. Louie then developed the only way to test for rabies which is a sample extracted from the infected animals medulla oblongata also known as the brain stem. With many samples Louie diluted the virus down to a safe enough level to be used in humans. The vaccine was proved to be a sucess when it saved the life of Joseph Meister, a nine year old boy who had been bitten by a rabid dog. Oh no the story does not end there your boy Louie also developed a vaccine for Anthrax. His German rival had showed that the bacteria release heat resistant spores which survive in fields. Determined not to be beaten Louie set out to find a vaccine. After many studies he was able to culture the bacteria and produce a vaccine that was used to protect the animals which this disease was affecting. Well that was just a taste of what this Great man did. Due to his innovations he was able to greatly change how the norm of that time. He is the one responsible for the many vaccines that keep us all safe at home not afraid to go outside because of rabid animals and anthrax bombs. I do not think that I have to further explain why he is the greatest individual. The proof is in the fermented alcohol. Louie is the man!!!

(You wont pet it though… But thanks to Louie now you can.)

Sources:

http://web.ukonline.co.uk/b.gardner/pasteur.htm

http://www.lucidcafe.com/library/95dec/pasteur.html

http://www.accessexcellence.org/RC/AB/BC/Louis_Pasteur.php

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 7th, 2009 at 10:14 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.