Discovery of molecular chirality in tartaric acid crystals (1848)
Separated mirror-image crystals of a tartrate salt by hand, showing molecules can be left- or right-handed
Science · Biology
Louis Pasteur
1822–1895 · French
Microbiology; chemistry; immunology
Louis Pasteur was a French chemist and microbiologist whose work underpins the germ theory of disease. He discovered molecular chirality, showed that fermentation and putrefaction are caused by microorganisms, disproved spontaneous generation with swan-neck flasks, and invented pasteurisation. He went on to develop vaccines against chicken cholera, anthrax and rabies, and founded the Institut Pasteur in Paris.
How to spot them
- ▸Pasteurisation of wine, beer and milk
- ▸Swan-neck flasks disproving spontaneous generation
- ▸Rabies vaccine given to the boy Joseph Meister in 1885
- ▸'Chance favours only the prepared mind'
- ▸Born in Dole in the Jura; founded the Institut Pasteur
Key discoveries & works
Swan-neck flask experiments disproving spontaneous generation (c. 1859–1862)
Boiled broth in flasks with curved necks stayed sterile because airborne microbes could not reach it
Pasteurisation (1860s)
Gentle heating to kill spoilage microbes, first applied to wine (patented 1865)
Attenuated vaccine against chicken cholera (1879)
An old, weakened culture protected chickens: the principle of attenuation
Public anthrax vaccine trial at Pouilly-le-Fort (1881)
Vaccinated sheep survived a lethal anthrax challenge while unvaccinated ones died
First rabies vaccine given to a human (1885)
On 6 July 1885 nine-year-old Joseph Meister, bitten by a rabid dog, was treated and survived
Studies of silkworm disease (pébrine) (1865–1870)
Helped save the French silk industry by identifying and screening out diseased silkworms
Key ideas
- Germ theory: many diseases, and fermentation and decay, are caused by living microorganisms
- Attenuation: weakened pathogens can be used to confer immunity
- Extended Jenner's word 'vaccine' to all such preventive inoculations in Jenner's honour
- 'In the fields of observation, chance favours only the prepared mind' (Lille, 1854)
Quick-fire facts
- •Born in Dole, Jura, the son of a tanner; died at Marnes-la-Coquette near Paris
- •Became professor and dean of the new Faculty of Sciences at Lille in 1854
- •Suffered a stroke in 1868 that left him partly paralysed, but continued working
- •The Institut Pasteur in Paris was founded in 1887 and inaugurated in 1888; he is buried in a crypt there
- •Elected to the Académie française in 1881
- •Had a bitter scientific rivalry with the German bacteriologist Robert Koch
- •Awarded the Royal Society's Copley Medal in 1874
Drill it — 9 cards
1 / 9new card
Sources
- Science History Institute — Louis Pasteur
- Institut Pasteur — History of the Institut Pasteur