Louis Pasteur, The Hero And Legend

By | November 27, 2018

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Louis Pasteur (Dole, 1822-Marnes-la-Coquette, 1895), French chemist, biologist, and microbiologist, in his laboratory. Painting by Albert Edelfelt (1854-1905), 1885, detail. Paris, Musée D'Orsay (Art Gallery) (Photo by DeAgostini/Getty Images)

A name everyone is familiar with – Pasteurization. The name comes from Louis Pasteur who invented many things, with pasteurization being just one of them.

To begin with, he was born in 1822 in Dole, France and was a middle child out of five children. Louis Pasteur is responsible for creating the first vaccines for many diseases which include anthrax, rabies, and fowl cholera. Through much research, he showed how diseases and fermentation are caused by microorganisms. In that time period, many did not accept the idea that germs could cause diseases.  

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Beginning his studies with chemistry, Pasteur moved on to studying life sciences. Launching his studies on fermentation, he agreed with the minority view that each fermentation is carried out by a living microorganism. The majority belief was that fermentation was generated spontaneously by a series of chemical reactions where enzymes not yet being recognized with life played a major part. In 1857, in a modest laboratory that he was allowed to establish, he continued to do his studies on fermentation, fighting many battles against the majority belief of spontaneity. By 1865, he had invented and patented the pasteurization process. Determining that the cause of “diseases” of wine were from unwanted microorganisms. These could be destroyed by just heating the wine to a temperature between 60 degrees and 100 degrees Celsius. Later, the same process was used for other substances such as milk.