Pasteur, Louis (Pasteur, Louis) (1822-1895), French microbiologist and chemist. Born December 27, 1822 in Dol. He graduated from the Higher Normal School in Paris (1847), defended his doctoral dissertation (1848). He taught natural sciences in Dijon (1847-1848), was a professor at Strasbourg (1849-1854) and Lille (since 1854) universities. In 1857 he became dean of the Faculty of Natural Sciences at the Higher Normal School, from 1867 - professor of chemistry at the University of Paris. In 1888 he founded and headed the Scientific Research Microbiological Institute (later the Pasteur Institute).
Pasteur made his first discovery in his student years, having discovered the optical asymmetry of molecules. Separating from each other two crystalline forms of tartaric acid, he showed that they differ in their optical activity (right and levorotatory forms). These studies formed the basis of a new scientific direction - stereochemistry. Later Pasteur established that optical isomerism is characteristic of many organic compounds, while natural products, in contrast to synthetic ones, are represented by only one of two isomeric forms.
From 1857 Pasteur began to study the processes of fermentation. As a result of numerous experiments, he proved that fermentation is a biological process caused by the activity of microorganisms. Further developing these ideas, he argued that each type of fermentation (lactic acid, alcoholic, acetic) is caused by specific microorganisms ("embryos"). Pasteur outlined his theory in an article on fermentation called milk (Sur la fermentation appelée lactique, 1857). In 1861, he discovered microorganisms that cause butyric fermentation - anaerobic bacteria that live and develop in the absence of free oxygen. The discovery of anaerobiosis led Pasteur to think that for organisms that live in an environment devoid of oxygen, fermentation replaces respiration. Between 1860 and 1861, Pasteur proposed a method for preserving food by heat treatment (later called pasteurization).
In 1865 Pasteur began to study the nature of the silkworm disease and, as a result of many years of research, developed methods of combating this infectious disease (1880). He studied other infectious diseases of animals and humans (anthrax, rabies, night blindness, pig rubella, etc.). He proposed a method of inoculation against these and other infectious diseases using weakened cultures of the corresponding pathogenic microorganisms. He proposed to call the weakened cultures vaccines, and the procedure for their application - vaccination. In 1880 Pasteur established the viral nature of rabies.
Monument to Louis Pasteur. Photo: couscouschocolat
Pasteur made a number of outstanding discoveries. In a short period from 1857 to 1885, he proved that fermentation (lactic acid, alcoholic, acetic acid) is not a chemical process, but is caused by microorganisms; refuted the theory of spontaneous generation; discovered the phenomenon of anaerobiosis, i.e. the possibility of the life of microorganisms in the absence of oxygen; laid the foundations for disinfection, asepsis and antiseptics; discovered a way to protect against infectious diseases through vaccination.
Many discoveries of L. Pasteur have brought great practical benefits to mankind. By heating (pasteurization), diseases of beer and wine, lactic acid products caused by microorganisms were defeated; to prevent purulent complications of wounds, an antiseptic was introduced; Based on the principles of L. Pasteur, many vaccines have been developed to combat infectious diseases.
However, the significance of the works of L. Pasteur goes far beyond the scope of just these practical achievements. L. Pasteur brought microbiology and immunology to fundamentally new positions, showed the role of microorganisms in human life, economy, industry, infectious pathology, laid down the principles by which microbiology and immunology develop in our time.
L. Pasteur was, in addition, an outstanding teacher and organizer of science.
The work of L. Pasteur on vaccination opened a new stage in the development of microbiology, rightfully called immunological.
The principle of attenuation (weakening) of microorganisms by means of passages through a susceptible animal or by keeping microorganisms under unfavorable conditions (temperature, drying) allowed L. Pasteur to obtain vaccines against rabies, anthrax, chicken cholera; this principle is still used in the preparation of vaccines. Consequently, L. Pasteur is the founder of scientific immunology, although the method of preventing smallpox by infecting people with cowpox, developed by the English doctor E. Jenner, was known before him. However, this method has not been extended to prevent other diseases.
Robert Koch. The physiological period in the development of microbiology is also associated with the name of the German scientist Robert Koch, who developed methods for obtaining pure cultures of bacteria, staining bacteria with microscopy, and micrographs. Also known is the Koch triad formulated by R. Koch, which is still used to identify the causative agent of the disease.
Louis Pasteur was born on $ 27 December $ 1822 in the city of Dole in France. His father was far from science and worked as a tanner.
Pasteur attended college in Arbois, where he became an assistant teacher. After gaining experience, he was able to get a job as an assistant teacher in Besançon. However, colleagues who noticed Pasteur's extraordinary intelligence advised him to get a higher education. As a result, in $ 1843, Louis began his studies at the Paris Higher Normal School. In $ 1847, after graduating from it, he became a professor of physics at the Dijon Lyceum. However, he worked there for only a year and received a more significant position - professor of chemistry at the University of Strasbourg.
In 1854, he changed his job again, and ended up at the University of Lille. In $ 1856, Pasteur was offered the position of Director of Academic Affairs at the Higher Normal School. This was a unique opportunity for him to carry out significant reforms.
Advances in chemistry
Back in his student years in $ 1848, Pasteur made his first discovery. Studying crystals of tartaric acid, he found that when the crystal is divided into two parts, optical isomers are obtained. This conclusion became the basis for a new section in chemistry - stereochemistry.
Another important discovery of Pasteur concerned the fermentation process. In $ 1857, he established the nature of the process based on the action of bacteria in anoxic conditions. Moreover, Pasteur proposed a method of preserving food through heat treatment - pasteurization.
Only from $ 1876, Pasteur directed all his activities to microbiology and especially immunology.
Advances in medicine
Pasteur began to study such infectious diseases as anthrax, cholera, rabies, etc. In the course of research, he found that diseases are caused by a certain kind of pathogens.
Remark 1
Louis Pasteur became the first researcher to make such great progress in the study of infectious agents. With his help, such sciences as microbiology, virology, immunology, bacteriology were born. It was he who first showed that the elimination of microorganisms by following the rules of antiseptics helps prevent infection with infectious diseases. Moreover, Pasteur developed a completely new method of preventing infections - vaccination.
By $ 1881, he had invented the anthrax vaccine for him, taking the first major step in this direction. Finally, Louis Pasteur's most famous achievement was the rabies vaccine. Pasteur gave his first anti-rabies vaccination on July 6, $ 1885, to the boy Joseph Meister, whose mother begged him to save her son from the inevitable death. The vaccination worked successfully, and the boy recovered soon after.
The results of his research quickly became publicized both in the scientific community and among ordinary people. Hopeful patients came from all over the world to heal the terminal illness.
Thanks to the fame that quickly spread throughout the world, Pasteur managed to raise funds for the opening of a microbiological institute in Paris. The institution earned $ 18 November $ 1888 a year and has become a major center for research on infectious diseases, their pathogens and methods of prevention, including immunization. The Institute is still working. In the 20th century, eight employees of the center, one of whom is our compatriot Ilya Mechnikov, received Nobel Prizes. Louis Pasteur invited Mechnikov in $ 1887 to head the laboratory "Morphology of lower organisms and comparative microbiology". As a result, over time, he received the position of vice-president of the Institute and worked there all his life.
In recognition of Pasteur's successes in the scientific community, he was admitted to the Paris, French and St. Petersburg Academies of Sciences.
French chemist and microbiologist Louis Pasteur was born on December 27, 1822, died at 72. Famous for his work on vaccination and pasteurization.
Scientific achievements of Louis Pasteur: 1. Proved that most infectious diseases are caused by the smallest living organisms, microorganisms. 2. Created vaccines for the treatment of rabies, anthrax and avian cholera. 3. Developed a method of pasteurization - disinfection of liquids by heating.
A cure for a deadly disease
Scientific purposes: The search for a vaccine against rabies, a disease with an almost one hundred percent mortality rate.
Difficulties: Danger of infection; scandal and possible arrest for experimenting with a child
Who: LOUIS PASTER and his assistant Emile Roux. Where: Paris, France. When: from 1882 to 1885
How: Pasteur spent years on painstaking research and was able to isolate the microorganisms that cause disease. To obtain a sample of the infection, he conducted experiments on animals.
Results: In the 19th century, rabies was not uncommon - people became infected from sick dogs and wild animals. Louis Pasteur has found an effective treatment.
Louis Pasteur made people's lives safer.
The doctor gives a young Frenchman an injection of a fresh rabies vaccine. Pasteur watches the procedure, wondering if the medicine will help or the patient will only get worse.
Can Pasteur fight the ruthless rabies virus?
July 6, 1885 Louis Pasteur was drawn into a life-and-death struggle. Nine-year-old Joseph Meister from Alsace, 400 km from Paris, was brought to his laboratory. Two days earlier, Joseph had been severely bitten by a mad dog - as many as 14 bites. Pasteur asked two doctors, Alfred Vulpin and Jacques Joseph Tranchet, to examine the boy. Doctors agreed that without treatment, the patient faces death.
A student tries to save his life from a mad dog on a street in a French town. In the 19th century, hundreds of people died from rabies in Europe.
Pasteur remembered from childhood what torment patients with rabies experience. The virus, which is contained in the saliva of animals, attacks the nervous system, spinal cord and brain for several weeks. His victims writhe in spasms and convulsions, they are thrown into a fever. They experience hallucinations - they see something that is not really there. They cannot eat or drink and eventually fall into a coma. Death is coming soon.
How to recognize a dog with rabies?
Without proper treatment, the rabies virus will kill a dog in a matter of weeks. Symptoms:
- strange changes in behavior: for example, incessant growling;
- fever and loss of appetite;
- foam at the mouth;
- muscle weakness, uncertain gait, paralysis.
Pasteur examines a bottle of grape juice. In his youth, he began his study of the microcosm by studying yeast fungi, which convert sugar into alcohol. This process is called fermentation.
Pasteur observes experimental dogs that have been vaccinated against rabies. He sees that his calculations are correct and the vaccine is working.
For three years, Pasteur and his assistant, Emile Roux, had been trying to find a cure for rabies, but Pasteur believed that the work was far from complete. He tested the vaccine on several dogs, but has not yet conducted experiments on humans. Pasteur and Roux risked their lives working with rabid dogs and collecting their infected saliva.
Over the course of ten stressful days, Pasteur gave Josef Meister 13 injections of rabies vaccine, gradually increasing his concentration. He waited and hoped the vaccine would work. Joseph's response to the drug was decisive for Pasteur's career. The scientist understood that scientific evidence was on his side: rabies was not the first fatal disease he studied. In 1877, anthrax, a devastating fever, killed thousands of sheep across Europe.
Pasteur's powerful microscope allowed him to study bacteria - organisms that can cause disease. He divided them into different types and looked for ways to cope with harmful to the body.
Anthrax is dangerous for both livestock and humans.
In the course of his experiments, Pasteur discovered that he could create weakened forms (strains) of viruses. If such a strain is introduced to a sheep, then its body gets the opportunity to fight the disease. In 1881, Pasteur vaccinated an entire flock of sheep with his new anthrax vaccine.
Pasteur vaccinates sheep, protecting them from anthrax. After 10 years, half a million cows and 3.5 million sheep were vaccinated against the disease.
Twenty days later, he infected these sheep and another unvaccinated flock with the anthrax virus. All unvaccinated sheep died. All vaccinated survivors. Pasteur applied this experience to the development of a rabies vaccine. It turned out that the dried spinal cord of infected rabbits contains a weakened form of the virus.
Louis Pasteur in his laboratory
Pasteur understood that dirt, that is, microbes, can disrupt all his experiments, so he insisted on impeccable cleanliness.
An electron microscope photograph of a microscopic but deadly rabies virus
The rabies virus infects the nerve cell and multiplies, infecting all new cells. Without treatment, the infection reaches the brain, and the patient dies.
Once in the animal's body, the weakened virus did not cause rabies symptoms. On the contrary, the body began to produce special cells - antibodies that fought the disease.
Pasteur's assistants prepare vaccines. Once a successful vaccine was developed, large quantities were required to treat humans and animals that might have been infected.
It was thanks to this that the treatment of young Joseph Meister was successful. He recovered and returned home. Pasteur became famous, and crowds of patients rushed to Paris. Between October 1885 and December 1886, Pasteur and his colleagues vaccinated 2,682 suspected rabies. 98% of them survived. Joseph grew up.
During the First World War, he served in the army, and then worked as a gatekeeper at the Pasteur Institute, the main research center for microbiology and infectious diseases that day.
In the photo, an adult Joseph Meister next to the monument to Louis Pasteur in 1935. The Pasteur Institute, where Meister worked, is today a powerful scientific organization with 24 branches around the world.
Timeline of Louis Pasteur's startling discoveries
At twenty, Pasteur was able to pass the exams only the second time, but later he made several breakthroughs in science and medicine.
1848 year
It revolutionizes the understanding of the microscopic structure of molecules in crystals.
1859 year
Refutes the popular belief about the spontaneous generation of life out of thin air.
1863 year
It offers pasteurization technology - long-term one-time heating of products (as a result, microbes die in them).
1865 year
Discovers two types of bacteria that cause silkworm disease. Rescues the French silk industry.
1877 year
Begins research on anthrax, a disease dangerous to animals and humans.
1879 year
Develops the first vaccine against avian cholera.
1884 year
The first successfully vaccinates dogs against rabies.
1885 year
Joseph Meister becomes the first person to be cured of rabies in Pasteur's laboratory.
1886 year
Nineteen people from Russia, bitten by a rabid wolf, visit Pasteur and are successfully cured.
1888 year
The Pasteur Institute is opened, which conducts critical research on the fight against infections.
French scientist Louis Pasteur is known throughout the scientific world for his discoveries and practical achievements in the field of microbiology, chemistry, the development of vaccines against serious diseases and many other achievements.
Brief biography of the scientist
Louis Pasteur was born December 27, 1822 in the French city of Jura (Dole). His father is Jean Pasteur, a tanner, a participant in the hostilities under the leadership of Napoleon Bonaparte. The Pasteur family was friendly. The father, who had not received any education at one time, decided to fill this gap by giving Louis the opportunity to study.
Pasteur delighted his parents with his academic success and extraordinary diligence. Louis read a lot, loved to draw, but, perhaps, nothing particularly stood out from among his peers. And only exceptional accuracy, observation and the ability to work with great enthusiasm made it possible to foresee a future scientist in him.
Louis Pasteur's education
Despite poor health and lack of funds, Louis Pasteur successfully completed his studies, first at the college in Arbois, and then at Besançon. After graduating from a course here with a bachelor's degree, he entered in 1843 in Higher normal school preparing teachers for high school.
Louis was particularly carried away chemistry and physics... At school he listened to Balar's lectures. And the famous chemist Jean Baptiste Dumas went to listen to the Sorbonne. The work in the laboratory captured Pasteur. In his enthusiasm for experiments, he often forgot about rest.
Learning success
After graduating from school in 1847, Louis Pasteur passed the exams for the title Associate Professor of Physical Sciences... A year later he defended his doctoral dissertation.
Then Pasteur was not yet twenty-six years old, but he had already gained fame for his research in the field of the structure of crystals. The young scientist gave an answer to a question that had remained unresolved before him, despite the efforts of many prominent scientists.
Founder of stereochemistry
He discovered the reason for the unequal effect of a beam of polarized light on crystals of organic substances. This outstanding discovery later led to the emergence stereochemistry- the science of the spatial arrangement of atoms in molecules.
In the same 1848 year Pasteur became an associate professor of physics at Dijon. Three months later, he takes up the new position of Adjunct Professor of Chemistry in Strasbourg. Pasteur took an active part in the 1848 revolution and even joined the National Guard.
Personal life
In 1849 Pasteur married Marie Lauren... They had four children. But two of them, unfortunately, died very young. Their family relationship was a role model: Louis and Marie respected each other, appreciated humor.
Studying fermentation
Pasteur became interested in phenomena fermentation, began to study them, and these studies led him to extraordinary discoveries. So Pasteur, a chemist and physicist, first touched the fascinating field of biology.
It was not by chance that the phenomena of fermentation interested Pasteur. He was never an armchair scientist, shutting himself off from the demands of life. Louis well understood what a huge role in the economic life of France played winemakers e, but it is entirely based on the phenomena of fermentation of grape juice.
Scientific discovery
In his laboratory in Lille in 1857 Pasteur made a remarkable discovery:
He proved that fermentation is not a chemical process, as it was then thought, but a biological phenomenon. It turned out that any fermentation (alcoholic, acetic acid, etc.) is the result of the vital activity of special microscopic organisms - yeast fungi.
Second discovery
Studying fermentation, Louis Pasteur made another important discovery: he found that there are organisms that can live without oxygen... For them, oxygen is not only unnecessary, but also harmful. Such organisms are called anaerobic. Their representatives are microbes that cause butyric acid fermentation. The proliferation of such microbes causes rancidity in wine and beer.
Recognition of merit
In 1874, the Chamber of Deputies, in recognition of his outstanding service to his homeland, awarded Pasteur a lifetime pension of 12,000 francs, which was increased in 1883 to 26,000 francs. In 1881, Louis was elected to the French Academy.
Starting with solving the "diseases" of wine and beer, the brilliant scientist Louis Pasteur devoted his entire further life to the study of microorganisms and the search for means of combating pathogens of dangerous infectious diseases of animals and humans.
Vaccines for diseases
Public verification of the effectiveness of vaccination against anthrax, carried out in 1881, brilliantly confirmed the value of the method proposed by Pasteur.
In 1882, Louis Pasteur and his collaborators began to study rubella pigs... Having isolated the pathogen, the scientist obtained weakened cultures of this microbe, which he successfully used as a vaccine.
An uphill battle for new treatments
But Pasteur and his followers had to lead a difficult struggle to recognize a new way prevention of contagious diseases. What attacks did not Pasteur endure! Reactionary scientists and journalists said that he had no right to practice medicine without a medical degree.
The scientist was reproached for refuting scientific views that had existed for centuries, they questioned his experiments. One failure was enough for Pasteur to be accused of infecting and killing people with his vaccinations. The great scientist who blessed humanity was at one time threatened with murder!
Louis Pasteur awards
In 1889 Louis Pasteur resigned from all responsibilities in order to surrender to the organization and management of the institute named after him. Pasteur's scientific merits were repeatedly assessed during his lifetime:
The Royal Society of London awarded him two gold medals in 1856 and 1874; The French Academy of Sciences awarded him a prize for his work on spontaneous generation.
last years of life
Louis Pasteur created the world's scientific school of microbiology, many of his students later became major scientists. Pasteur was a staunch friend of Russia and had close relations with many Russian scientists.
Almost all Russian microbiologists of that time went to work with Pasteur, and later to his institute in Paris. Here is what Pasteur said to his students:
“Be sure that you have discovered an important scientific fact, burn with a feverish desire to notify the whole world and restrain yourself for days, weeks, sometimes years; to enter into a struggle with oneself, to exert all forces in order to destroy the fruits of his labors himself and not to proclaim the result obtained until he has tried all the hypotheses contradicting him - yes, this is a difficult feat. "
French microbiologist and chemist
short biography
Louis Pasteur(right Pasteur, fr. Louis Pasteur; December 27, 1822, Dole, Department of Jura - September 28, 1895, Villeneuve-l'Etane near Paris) - French microbiologist and chemist, member of the French Academy (1881). Pasteur, showing the microbiological essence of fermentation and many human diseases, became one of the founders of microbiology and immunology. His work in the field of crystal structure and polarization phenomena formed the basis of stereochemistry. Pasteur also put an end to the centuries-old dispute about the spontaneous generation of some forms of life at the present time, having experimentally proved the impossibility of this. His name is widely known in non-scientific circles thanks to the technology he created and later named after him. pasteurization.
Early years of life
Louis Pasteur was born in the French Jura in 1822. His father, Jean Pasteur, was a tanner and a veteran of the Napoleonic Wars. Louis attended college in Arbois, where he was the youngest student. Here he became interested in reading books and was able to become a teacher's assistant. Pasteur's letters of these years, addressed to the sisters, have survived, in which the dependence of "success" on "desire and work" is described. He then secured a teaching position at Besançon while continuing to study. There the teachers advised him to enter the Higher Normal School in Paris, which he succeeded in 1843. He graduated from it in 1847.
Pasteur proved to be a talented artist, his name was listed in the reference books of portrait painters of the 19th century. He left portraits of his sisters and mother, but due to his hobby for chemistry he gave up painting. Pastels and portraits of parents and friends, painted by Pasteur at the age of 15, are now exhibited and kept in the museum of the Institut Pasteur in Paris. His work was highly regarded - Louis received a Bachelor of Arts (1840) and a Bachelor of Science (1842) from the Higher Normal School. After a short service as professor of physics at the Dijon Lyceum in 1848, Pasteur became professor of chemistry at the University of Strasbourg, where in 1849 he met and began to care for Marie Laurent, the daughter of the university rector. They married on May 29, 1849, and had five children, but only two of them survived to adulthood (the other three died of typhoid fever). The personal tragedies endured inspired Pasteur to search for causes and forced him to try to find a cure for infectious diseases such as typhus.
In 1854, Louis Pasteur was appointed dean of the new Faculty of Natural Sciences at Lille. On this occasion, Pasteur uttered his often quoted remark: “Fr. Dans les champs de l "observation, le hasard ne favorise que les esprits préparés." directeur des études) at the Higher Normal School. Thus, Louis Pasteur took control of the Higher Normal School and began a series of reforms (1858-1867). The system of examinations is becoming more rigid, which contributes to better results, strengthening knowledge, increasing competition and increasing the prestige of the institution.
Works in the field of chemistry
Pasteur published his first scientific work in 1848. Studying the physical properties of tartaric acid, he found that the acid obtained during fermentation has optical activity - the ability to rotate the plane of polarization of light, while the chemically synthesized isomeric tartaric acid does not have this property. Studying crystals under a microscope, he identified two types of them, which are, as it were, mirror images of each other. When dissolving crystals of one type, the solution turned the plane of polarization clockwise, and the other, counterclockwise. A solution of a mixture of two types of crystals in a 1: 1 ratio had no optical activity.
Pasteur came to the conclusion that crystals are composed of molecules of different structures. Chemical reactions create both types with equal probability, but living organisms use only one of them. Thus, the chirality of molecules was shown for the first time. As it was discovered later, amino acids are also chiral, and only their L-forms are present in living organisms (with rare exceptions). In some ways, Pasteur anticipated this discovery.
After this work, Pasteur was appointed an adjunct professor of physics at the Dijon Lyceum, but three months later, already in May 1849, at the invitation he moved as an adjunct professor of chemistry at the University of Strasbourg. Here he decided to marry and wrote a letter to the dean's daughter with a successful proposal, where, in particular, Pasteur said the following about himself:
There is nothing in me that a young girl could like, but as far as I remember, everyone who got to know me better loved me very much.
Some of his experiments in the light of the knowledge of modern science look naive: thus, trying to change the chemical processes occurring in animal organisms, Pasteur placed them between giant magnets. And with the help of a large pendulum mechanism, he tried, rocking the plants, to turn them into mirror molecular reflections of themselves.
Studying fermentation
Flask "with a swan neck" - fermenter used by Pasteur
Pasteur began to study fermentation in 1857. At that time, the dominant theory was that this process is of a chemical nature (J. Liebig), although there were already published works on its biological nature (C. Canyard de Latour, 1837), which had no recognition. By 1861 Pasteur showed that the formation of alcohol, glycerol and succinic acid during fermentation can occur only in the presence of microorganisms, often specific.
Portrait of Louis Pasteur by A. Edelfelt
Louis Pasteur proved that fermentation is a process closely related to the vital activity of yeast fungi, which feed and multiply due to the fermenting liquid. In clarifying this question, Pasteur had to refute Liebig's view of fermentation as a chemical process, which was dominant at that time. Particularly convincing were Pasteur's experiments, made with a liquid containing pure sugar, various mineral salts that served as food for the fermenting fungus, and ammonia salt, which supplied the fungus with the necessary nitrogen. The fungus developed, increasing in weight; the ammonium salt was spent. According to Liebig's theory, it was necessary to wait for a decrease in the weight of the fungus and the release of ammonia, as a product of the destruction of nitrogenous organic matter that makes up the enzyme. Subsequently, Pasteur showed that the presence of a special "organized enzyme" (as the living cells of microbes were called at that time) is also necessary for lactic fermentation, which multiplies in a fermenting liquid, also increasing in weight, and with which it is possible to induce fermentation in new portions of liquid.
At the same time, Louis Pasteur made another important discovery. He found that there are organisms that can live without oxygen. For some of them, oxygen is not only unnecessary, but also poisonous. Such organisms are called strict (or obligate) anaerobes. Their representatives are microbes that cause butyric fermentation. The proliferation of such microbes causes rancidity in wine and beer. Fermentation thus turned out to be an anaerobic process, “life without oxygen,” because it is negatively affected by oxygen (the Pasteur effect).
At the same time, organisms capable of both fermentation and respiration grew more actively in the presence of oxygen, but consumed less organic matter from the environment. It has been shown that anaerobic life is less effective. It has now been shown that aerobic organisms are able to extract almost 20 times more energy from the same amount of organic substrate than anaerobic ones.
Study of the spontaneous generation of microorganisms
In the years 1860-1862, Pasteur studied the possibility of spontaneous generation of microorganisms. He conducted an elegant experiment that proved the impossibility of spontaneous generation of microbes (in modern conditions, although then the question of the possibility of spontaneous generation in past eras was not raised), taking a thermally sterilized nutrient medium and placing it in an open vessel with a long curved neck. No matter how long the vessel was in the air, no signs of life were observed in it, since bacterial spores contained in the air settled on the bends of the neck. But as soon as it was broken off or the bends were rinsed with a liquid medium, microorganisms that emerged from the spores began to multiply in the medium. In 1862, the French Academy of Sciences awarded Pasteur a prize for solving the question of the spontaneous generation of life.
Sculptural group at the foot of the Louis Pasteur monument, Paris, Place de Breteuil
Study of infectious diseases
In 1864, French winemakers turned to Pasteur with a request to help them develop means and methods for combating wine diseases. The result of his research was a monograph in which Pasteur showed that wine diseases are caused by various microorganisms, and each disease has a specific pathogen. To destroy harmful "organized enzymes", he suggested heating the wine at a temperature of 50-60 degrees. This method, called pasteurization, is widely used in laboratories and in the food industry.
In 1865, Pasteur was invited by his former teacher to the south of France to find the cause of the silkworm disease. After the publication of Robert Koch's work "The Etiology of Anthrax" in 1876, Pasteur devoted himself entirely to immunology, finally establishing the specificity of the causative agents of anthrax, childbirth fever, cholera, rabies, chicken cholera and other diseases, developed the concept of artificial immunity, proposed a method of protective vaccinations , in particular against anthrax (1881), rabies (together with Emile Roux, 1885), involving specialists from other medical specialties (for example, the surgeon O. Lannelong).
The first rabies vaccination was given on 6 July 1885 to 9-year-old Joseph Meister at the request of his mother. The treatment was successful, and the boy did not develop symptoms of rabies.
Pasteurization
Pasteurization- process disposable heating most often liquid products or substances up to 60 ° C for 60 minutes or at a temperature of 70-80 ° C for 30 minutes. The technology was proposed in the middle of the 19th century by the French microbiologist Louis Pasteur. It is used for disinfecting food products, as well as for extending their shelf life.
In the process of such processing, the product perishes vegetative forms of microorganisms, but disputes remain in a viable state and, when favorable conditions arise, begin to develop intensively. Therefore, pasteurized products (milk, beer, etc.) are stored at low temperatures for a limited period of time. It is believed that the nutritional value of products during pasteurization practically does not change, since the taste and valuable components (vitamins, enzymes) are preserved.
Religious views
Pasteur was a devout Catholic:
... Outside of his science, Pasteur was a man of traditional views, which he accepted without any criticism, as if all his genius, critical mind, skepticism were absorbed by science (and so it was), and there was nothing left for other things. He accepted religion as he was taught as a child, with all the consequences, kissing His Holiness's shoes and the like. The embodiment of skepticism, disbelief and critical spirit in scientific matters, he manifested the faith of a Breton peasant or even a "Breton woman", in his own words, of course exaggerated. So, he did not confine himself to reports of his experiments, but added to them pious remarks that the triumph of "heterogeneity" (the doctrine of spontaneous generation) would be a triumph of materialism, that the idea of spontaneous generation eliminates the idea of God and the like.
M.A.Engelgardt. Louis Pasteur, his life and scientific work. - Chapter IV. - P. 36.
- Pasteur studied biology all his life and treated people without receiving any medical or biological education.
- In addition, as a child, he was fond of drawing. Years later, J.-L. Jerome saw his work. The artist expressed his satisfaction that Louis Pasteur chose science as he could become a strong competitor in painting.
- In 1868 (at the age of 45) Pasteur suffered a cerebral hemorrhage. He remained disabled: his left hand was inactive, his left leg dragged along the ground. He nearly died, but eventually recovered. Moreover, after this he made the most significant discoveries: he created a vaccine against anthrax and vaccinations against rabies. When the scientist died, it turned out that a huge part of his brain was destroyed. Pasteur died of uremia.
- According to I.I.Mechnikov, Pasteur was a passionate patriot and a hater of the Germans. When a German book or brochure was brought to him from the post office, he took it with two fingers and threw it away with a feeling of great disgust.
- Later, a genus of bacteria was named after him - Pasteurella ( Pasteurella), causing septic diseases, to the discovery of which he, apparently, had nothing to do.
- Pasteur was awarded orders from almost all countries of the world. In total, he had about 200 awards.
Memory
Louis Pasteur died in 1895 near Paris. The death was caused by complications from a series of strokes that began in 1868. He was buried in the Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris, but later his remains were reburied in a crypt at the Institut Pasteur (Paris, France). Currently, the body of the scientist is located under the building of the Pasteur Institute, the vaults of which are covered with Byzantine mosaics illustrating his achievements.
More than 2,000 streets in many cities around the world are named after Pasteur. For example, in the USA: Palo Alto (Historic Center of Silicon Valley) and Irvine, California; Boston and Polk, Florida; streets next to the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio; in the cities of Quebec, Jonquière, San Salvador de Jujuy, Buenos Aires (Argentina), Great Yarmouth in Norfolk (United Kingdom), Queensland (Australia), Phnom Penh (Cambodia), Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam), Batna (Algeria) , Bandung (Indonesia), Tehran (Iran), Milan (Italy), Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca and Timisoara (Romania), Astana (Kazakhstan), Kharkiv (Ukraine), as well as the street on which the building of Odessa State Medical University is located ( Odessa, Ukraine). Avenue Pasteur in Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam) is one of the few streets in this city that has retained its French name. Pasteur Street is the former name of Makatayev Street in Almaty (Kazakhstan).
After the reform of Minister E. Fora in 1968, the University of Strasbourg was divided into three parts. One of them (the largest in the country) was named "University of Pasteur - Strasbourg I". It continued until the merger of the Strasbourg universities in 2009.
In Russia, the Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, founded in 1923 and located in St. Petersburg, bears the name of Louis Pasteur.
In 1961, the International Astronomical Union named Louis Pasteur a crater on the far side of the moon.
Depicted on a 1995 Belgium postage stamp.
Institut Pasteur
Institut Pasteur(fr. Institut Pasteur) - Institute of Microbiology, a French private non-profit scientific institute in Paris, engaged in research in the field of biology, microorganisms, infectious diseases and vaccines. Named after the famous French microbiologist Louis Pasteur, founder and first director of the institute. The institute was founded on June 4, 1887 with funds raised by international subscription, and opened on November 14, 1888.