Louis Pasteur: biography and contributions of the French bacteriologist

The impact of the contributions of this French bacteriologist reaches us to this day

Louis Pasteur 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 discoveries.

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, trajectory, contributions, research, recognitions and death.

• Recommended article: "The 30 best quotes 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). He spent his childhood in a small town called Arbois.

Louis Pasteur went down in history for his great scientific discoveries in the field of chemistry and microbiology in particular. He also 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 a former sergeant of Napoleon.

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

Academic beginnings and achievements

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

He also began working in Dijon and Strasbourg, doing research 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 Science Department of the Ecole Normale de Paris..

Findings

In Louis Pasteur's life, discoveries and discoveries in the scientific field soon began to appear.

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

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

Pasteurization

One of Louis Pasteur's most recognized discoveries, and one that bears his name, was that of pasteurization..

Through the study of fermentation, Pasteur discovered the following: when wine was heated to 55ºC, its bacteria died, but its flavor remained intact. This process was called pasteurization, and was a lifesaver 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 that by heating the milk (increasing its pressure and temperature to approximately 80ºC) before bottling, and then allowing it to cool rapidly, it was possible to eliminate the microorganisms and bacteria in the substance without altering its qualities.he was able to eliminate the microorganisms and bacteria from the substance without altering its qualities or composition.. This is what pasteurization was - and is - all about.

Beyond pasteurization

Louis Pasteur continued his research, working first in Arbois and then in the company of Henri Marès in 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 originated wine diseases, such as fat, bitterness or acescence (wine pitting or "acetic acid").

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

Other contributions: pebrin

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

There he was helping the silk industry in the south of France. They were going through a crisis, as a silkworm disease, pebrin, had spread and become an epidemic.

What Pasteur did was to demonstrate that pebrin was not only contagious, but also hereditary.. This led him to conclude that eggs free of the disease should be selected for further breeding.

Other fields: Medicine

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

Thus, he suggested that diseases originated from the action of certain germs, which penetrated into the interior of the body.which penetrated inside the organism from the outside. He called this theory the "microbial theory of disease". In fact, these assertions were much debated by scientists and physicians all over the world.

Vaccines

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

Following this finding, he thought that a mild form of the disease could be induced in cattle by administering this type of weakened or inactivated bacteria. So he did, in order to immunize cattle against the lethal attack of anthrax. His research and experiments yielded promising results.

Beyond 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 was cured. The rabies vaccine is still in use today, being effective in saving a large number of people.

Death and legacy

After a professional career full of great contributions and discoveries in the scientific field, especially in 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 consequence of a cardiorespiratory arrest. To this day his legacy is still alive, his knowledge being passed on in schools, universities, institutes, research centers, etc.

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

Bibliographical references:

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

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

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