Louis Pasteur was a scientist. He led many scientific discoveries particularly in the study of germs and living organisms. It is through the work of Pasteur that we know to wash our hands to prevent that spread of germs, that medical instruments need to be sterilized, and his research on germ theory led to the development of antibiotics. His initial motivation was a love of science, but his research and life events led him to ask important science questions that begged to be answered. After his initial research on crystallization and how polarized light passed through them he became associated with another scientist named Biot. It was after testing Pasteur’s theories that the two became good friends and colleagues. Pasteur’s work into the study of disease and vaccination was further spurred on when two of his daughters died of typhoid.
Pasteur’s study of crystallography gained him great recognition and he became the Dean of the Faculty of Science Lille. In this school they were doing a great deal of research on the production of alcohol by fermentation of the beetroot. “At this time the theory of Liebig, that fermentation was a chemical process,” (Fleming) was being researched. Pasteur questioned this theory
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With Edward Jenner’s discovery of the smallpox vaccination, Pasteur asked the questioned if a vaccine be found for all diseases. Pasteur’s work showed that bacteria could cause infectious diseases. His discovery of the chicken cholera vaccination was through a process of trial and error. He was able to “isolate a microbe from fowls suffering from this disease”. (Fleming) Many experiments of trial and error were conducted and it was actually chickens that were injected with an old culture that led Pasteur and his team to discover the vaccination for chicken cholera. Building on his germ studies he was able to investigate other diseases including anthrax and
Louis Pasteur began his research by discovering that liquids such as milk decayed due to a large increase in the amount of germs present in the liquid. Through additional study he established that these microorganisms could be killed through heating, which is now called pasteurization. This explanation could also be applied to solid materials such as meats. Pasteur was also able to use his new discovery to explain that diseases and infections were caused by an increase in the amount of germs in a person. This theory came to be known as the germ theory (“Science Museum Louis
“Louis Pasteur – Germ Theory of Disease” Inventors About. Com. 2014. Retrieved on January 13 2014 from Biography.com: http://inventors.about.com/od/pstartinventors/a/Louis_Pasteur.htm
The intention of this paper is to examine the significant and enduring impact Louis Pasteur had on public health and wonderful advances in medicines and invention of vaccines. Louis Pasteur was a truly talented person who made many various discoveries in different areas of science. He invented Pasteurization, the process of treating milk free of damage causing microorganisms (Louis Pasteur, 2014). In 1843, Louis enrolled at the Ecole Normale Supe´rieure in Paris, where he focused in the origins of life. During the time he was professor in Strasbourg, France, he started investigating fermentation, which is a chemical process that breaks down organic substance. Pasteur became drawn to the field of transmittable diseases and the discovery of
Louis Pasteur, motivated by Edward Jenner’s discovery of the small pox vaccination, determined that other diseases could be cured by vaccinations as well, and he set out to systematically determine what caused the diseases, and how to develop the vaccines for them. While he was familiar with Edward Jenner’s smallpox vaccine, he did not really know how it worked, and so he started experimenting, doing various tests that may develop a cure for chicken cholera, rabies, anthrax, etc. There were multiple diseases that would sweep through areas and effect large numbers of the population. Pasteur is famous for several things, one of them being the discovery of micro-organisms. This discovery was a by-product of research that Pasteur had been asked
One of the most groundbreaking discoveries of medical history was the vaccination and eventual eradication of smallpox, thanks to Edward Jenner. When he noticed that milkmaids exposed to cowpox were immune to smallpox, he used the pus from a cowpox lesions and inoculated a young boy. The boy soon was sick from cowpox but recovered quickly. When he was then inoculated with smallpox matter, he never became ill. This proved that there was a way to save people from the deadly disease of smallpox. This led to a better understanding of immunology. Other vaccines such as polio, MMR, and influenza wouldn’t have been created as quickly, if at all without Jenner. It is suspected that his interest and curiosity for curing smallpox was when he was 13 years old as an apprentice to a surgeon; he heard a milkmaid say, “I shall never have smallpox for I have had cowpox. I shall never have an ugly pockmarked face.” Although it was already suspected there was a connection between the two, it wasn’t determined until Edward Jenner created the vaccination. Smallpox has been eradicated from the World since 1980 because of this.
Louis Pasteur tried to explain that surgery could not evolve without understanding of bacteriology and causes of infection, many of his theories were rejected until the century was over. Louis Pasteur’s most famous theory was his germ theory. However his theory was only speculation and not fact. He was able to prove the existence of aerobic and anaerobic bacteria. Pasteur proposed that all equipment should be sterilized before and after surgerys.
Pasteur spent a large portion of his life working on the causes of diseases, including septicemia, cholera, diphtheria, fowl cholera, tuberculosis, and smallpox. He was intensely engaged in finding a vaccine for rabies and spent many years of his life studying the disease.
Mandatory vaccination continues to be a contentious subject in the United States, even though extensive evidence proves inoculation prevents certain diseases. According to A. Plotkin & L. Plotkin (2011), the evolution of the first vaccine commenced in the 1700’s when a physician named Edwards Jenner discovered that cowpox protected individuals from one of the deadliest diseases termed smallpox. The precise virus Jenner used is unclear; however, it was espoused in the extermination of smallpox worldwide. The researchers further explained, the unearthing of the subsequent vaccine known as chicken cholera occurred approximately 80 years later by Louise Pasteur. Ever since, copious vaccines such as rabies, yellow fever, varicella, pneumococcal, mumps and recently HPV have been introduced.
Louis Pasteur was a very curious man that is recognized as the founder of the term germ and many advances in the medical field. Pasteur wanted to prove a theory he had about immunity in which he asked questions about the potential success or failure and the reason why some people or animals didn't get as sick as others. These questions lead to his theory about early exposure to a weakened bacteria and the strength of the immune system within an organism. He decided to perform an experiment on sheep in which he gave a “vaccine” to a certain number of them and didn't give it to some others. Later he went back and exposed all off them to a stronger bacteria which killed the ones that weren't given the vaccinations. This discovery is the basis
Other notable people include Florence Nightingale and her work on the improvement of hospitals in the 1860s, Jon Snow and Robert Koch’s work on identifying and combating cholera and Lister’s development of anti-septic and aseptic techniques during surgery. The most important of these scientifically, though, was Louis Pasteur's identification of germs in 1861. Unlike Jenner, he was able to scientifically prove his discovery and knowledge of germs led to the development of a anthrax vaccine in 1881, as well as the identification of twenty-one germs in as many years by Robert Koch and his team. However, unlike Jenner, Pasteur’s work had little impact on everyday people, who were still dying from disease at an extraordinary rate. Consequently, Jenner’s work remained significant, but it was not more important than the work of others during the period and not to as great an extent as the Germ Theory
It all began when Louis Pasteur (who had made his mark in crystallography, and been hired as the dean and professor at University of Lille) was approached in the 1850s by a man who was having trouble with his sugar-beet juice going bad before he was able to distill alcohol from it. Because of his previous work, this question intrigued him! Under his microscope, he was able to identify round globules
The work of Louis Pastor was included numerous discoveries in the medical field. This includes microbial fermentation, vaccines and pasteurization. In regards to vaccines it is states that Edward Jenner discovered the vaccination, while Louis Pastor invented vaccines. The motive leading to the first discovery of the vaccines dates back to 1879. At the time chickens were contracting a rampant disease, called fowl cholera that was spread throughout chicken coups. When a chicken was inoculated with the bacteria it would die but, when Pastor realized if a chicken was inoculated with old culture the chicken would become immune to the disease. Pastor discovered this by chance and then began to repeat this pattern
In 1854 Louis Pasteur became a professor of chemistry at Lille. Shortly after, he became interested in fermentation. This was very helpful since alcohol making was a huge industry there. His interest in fermentation resulted in Louis developing many other interests. “In 1857 he jumped around from chemistry, biology then to medicine (Miller, 2002).” In 1860 he discovered pasteurization to kill bacteria in many food and beverages. This made a huge impact on the world. With pasteurization there would now be fewer illnesses due to people ingesting bacteria and parasites.
For as long as I can remember I have always had the desire to serve and help others. Whether it was around the corner or across the globe, I knew it was something that I wanted to be a part of. When I was fifteen, a teacher in my high school made a presentation talking about how he volunteered in Africa and was primarily volunteering with one part of the community, but also focused on building wells for drinking water with some community members. At the end of his presentation I thought “I’m doing that”. Time went by and I always had the Peace Corps in the back of my head.
Pasteur had already done work six years earlier with the disease chicken cholera, a disease that was to blame for the elimination of chicken flock in France. Through this one vaccine he produced for a single species of bird, he was able to discover the phenomena of virulence, or the harmful quality of a microorganism that causes the