Louis Pasteur: biography and contributions of the French bacteriologist

Louis Pasteur he was an important French chemist and bacteriologist, who made great contributions to the field of science, and especially to the field of chemistry. He studied fermentation processes, discovered pasteurization, and developed the rabies vaccine, among other findings.

For many, Pasteur was also the father of microbiology, a part of biology that studies microorganisms. In this article we will briefly review the biography of Louis Pasteur: his origin, career, contributions, research, recognition and death.

• Recommended article: "The 30 best phrases of Louis Pasteur"

Louis Pasteur: who was he?

Louis Pasteur was a renowned French scientist, as well as a chemist and bacteriologist. He was born on December 27, 1822 in Dôle, Burgundy, (France), and died on September 28, 1895, at the age of 73, in Marnes-la-Coquette (also France). His childhood was spent in a small town called Arbois.

Louis Pasteur went down in history for his great scientific discoveries in the field of chemistry and microbiology, especially. In addition, he made important contributions in the field of vaccines.

Origin and personal life

Louis Pasteur was the son of Jeanne-Étiennette Roquide and Jean-Joseph Pasteur. His father was Napoleon's former sergeant.

As for his personal life, Pasteur married Marie Laurent in 1849, with whom he had five children. However, three of them died as children as a result of typhus, and only two of them (Jean-Baptiste and Marie-Luise) reached adulthood.

Academic beginnings and achievements

At an academic level, Pasteur obtained a doctorate in Physics and Chemistry from the École Normale de Paris. He then he started working as an assistant to a chemist named Dumas.

He also started working in Dijon and Strasbourg, researching and teaching. Soon Pasteur began to be recognized for his research, and in 1843 he received the first prize in Physics from the Lycée Saint Louis.

A few years later, in 1854, Pasteur arrived at the University of Lille. There he was appointed professor of chemistry and dean of the faculty of science. In 1857 he became director of the Department of Sciences of the Ecole Normale de Paris..

Findings

In the life of Louis Pasteur, discoveries and discoveries would soon begin to appear in the scientific field.

His first discovery was only 23 years old, and it was about the optical activity of space isomers; As a result of this finding, stereoisomerism appeared, a term in chemistry that is related to the structural formula and the spatial arrangement of atoms.

Pasteur also studied alcoholic fermentation, a biological process of fermentation. He found in it a microbial origin, thanks to the discovery of a specific substance in it: amyl alcohol.

Pasteurization

One of Louis Pasteur's most recognized discoveries, and named after him, It was the pasteurization.

Through the study of fermentation, Pasteur discovered the following: by heating the wine to 55ºC, its bacteria were killed, but its flavor remained intact. This process was called pasteurization, and it was a salvation for the wine industry and others.

But pasteurization went beyond wine, as Pasteur's research showed, also in the preservation of milk, for example.

The chemist observed how by heating the milk (increasing its pressure and temperature, to about 80ºC, approximately) before bottling it, and later letting it cool quickly, se he managed to eliminate microorganisms and bacteria from the substance without altering its qualities or composition. This was - and is - pasteurization.

Beyond pasteurization

Louis Pasteur continued to investigate, and began to work first in Arbois and later in the company of Henri Marès de Fabrègues.

What else did Pasteur discover? He discovered that lactic and alcoholic fermentations have different ferments. In addition, he also observed that there were certain germs that caused wine diseases, such as fat, bitterness or acescence (wine chopping or “acetic acid).

In 1866 Louis Pasteur's work on "Études sur le vin, ses maladies" was published, after him to transfer the conclusions of his research to the Academy of Science a year before, in 1865.

Other contributions: the pebrina

That same year, in 1865, Pasteur left Paris, where he was working as director of scientific studies at the École Normale.

There they helped the silk industry in southern France. They were just going through a crisis, as a silkworm disease, pebrine, had spread and become an epidemic.

What Pasteur did was show that pebrine, in addition to being contagious, was hereditary. This led him to conclude that they should select disease-free eggs to continue raising them.

Other fields: Medicine

Pasteur's discoveries and research had repercussions beyond the field of chemistry and bacteriology, reaching as far as medicine. Pasteur argued that the same thing that happened in fermentation processes, happened in diseases (in terms of their origin and evolution).

In this way, he suggested that diseases originate from the action of certain germs, that penetrated inside the organism, from the outside. He called this theory the "microbial theory of disease." In reality, these claims were highly debated by scientists and physicians around the world.

Vaccines

Louis Pasteur also made contributions to the field of vaccines. Pasteur showed that anthrax, a deadly disease of cattle, was caused by a certain bacillus (a type of bacteria).

As a result of this finding, he thought that a form of the disease (mild) could be induced in cattle, through the administration of this type of weakened or inactivated bacteria. So he did so, in order to immunize cattle against the lethal attack of anthrax. His research and experiments yielded promising results.

Beyond the cattle, Pasteur also applied the vaccine to humans. Thus, in 1885, he administered a vaccine to a young man who had been bitten by a dog with rabies. Through a treatment that lasted ten days, the young man was inoculated with the virus, recovered and healed. The rabies vaccine continues to be used today, being effective in saving large numbers of people.

Death and legacy

After a professional career full of great contributions and discoveries to the scientific field and especially to the chemical field, Louis Pasteur died, at the age of 73, in Marnes-la-Coquette (France).

His death occurred on September 28, 1895, as a result of a cardiorespiratory arrest. To this day, his legacy lives on, transmitting his knowledge in schools, universities, institutes, research centers, etc.

As a curious fact, the following words can be read on Pasteur's tombstone: “Happy is he who carries an ideal, an internal God, be it the ideal of the country, the ideal of science or simply the virtues of the Gospel".

Bibliographic references:

• Agudo, J. (2016). Pioneers of Microbiology: Louis Pasteur. Bibliographic review, University of Seville.

• Ehrhard, F. (1959). Luis Pasteur, the man and his work.

• Parker, S. (1993). Louis Pasteur and the germs. Madrid: Celeste Ediciones.