On December 27, 1822, Louis Pasteur, sonof a tanner and former sergeant in the armiesof Napoleon, was born in obscurity at D”ole,France. Today his name is known and honoredthroughout the world for his contributions tothe welfare of humanity. A great scientist,above all a great experimentalist, he was also acrusader
who
became the nineteenth century’sgreatest symbol of triumphant science.
As a young student, Pasteur was noted chief-ly for some pastel portraits of his parents andfriends. At the Ecole Normale Supbrieure, hewas fired with the joy of discovery under theguidance of two influential teachers, JeanBaptiste Dumas and Antoine J6me Balard.Trained as a chemist, Pasteur in his first re-search discovered why sodium-ammoniumtartrate rotated the plane of a beam of polar-ized light while the corresponding paratartratedid not. This brought him the attention andsupport of the outstanding French physicistJean Baptiste Biot. The work also demon-strated his independence of mind in question-ing a leading scientist, his ability to select signi-ficant problems, and his experimental genius indealing with them.Pasteur moved from his studies of opticalrotation to fermentation, where, in oppositionto the commonly accepted views of the leadingGerman chemist, Justus Liebig, he demon-strated convincingly the role of yeast in alco-Pastelof Pasteur’s ather.holic fermentation and of other micro-organisms in other forms of fermentation. Theneed to convince the skeptical led him to stud-ies of so-called spontaneous generation. At theurgent request of others he studied the causesof “diseases” in wine and vinegar and also insilkworms. Always he went quickly to the es-sence and his solutions were practical and use-ful to the industries involved as well as fruitfulfor scientific theory. His experiments were de-signed to test, prove, and convince. He had tofight for his ideas to have them accepted, anddid so ardently and effectively.Pasteur’smodelsof tartrate crystals.Photo courtesyPasteur nstitute.
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National Institutes of Health: louis
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| Upload Date: | 01/20/2008 |
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