THE STORY OF LOUIS PASTEUR Audiobook Academy

audiobook academy biography presents louis pasteur french chemist and microbiologist louis pasteur december 27 1822 dole france september 28 1895 saint cloud was one of the most significant founders of medical microbiology it is practically impossible to compare pasteur's contributions to science technology and medicine to anyone else's discovered that germs cause fermentation and disease invented the process of pasteurization rescued the beer wine and silk industries in france and created vaccinations against anthrax and rabies among many other accomplishments he was awarded france's most prestigious honor the legion of honor for his contributions to science and he was also elected to the academy day sciences and several other honors it is an honor bestowed on few scientists that his name is now associated with more than 30 different institutions including hospitals schools buildings and streets early years during the napoleonic wars pasteur's father jean joseph pasteur tanner and sergeant major received the legion of honor as child pastor may have been indoctrinated with strong sense of patriotism because of this circumstance in his early years louis pasteur was an ordinary student but he was excellent in the arts they were then displayed in the pasture institute museum in paris where they had been stored since they were made when he was just 15 years old after completing his elementary education at arboy where his family had relocated and his secondary education in nearby bezasson he graduated from the royal college of bez assan with bachelor of arts 1840 and bachelor of science 1842 research career the ecole normale superior parisian teacher's college enrolled pastor in 1843 when he studied under the guidance of french scientist jean-baptiste andre dumas in 1845 pastor earned master's degree in science before going on to earn doctorate in physics in 1847 he received phd in science year following his appointment as physics teacher at the lysetta dijon pasteur accepted position as chemical teacher at the universitat de strasbourg the rector's daughter muriel laronne was his bride on may 29 1849. only two of the couple's five children survived childhood molecular asymmetry he was baffled by eel heart mitulisha's discovery of tartrates and paratartrates in polarized light which showed that tartrates rotated the plane of polarized light while peritartrates did not soon after graduating from the eccle normal superior pasteur was baffled by this discovery they had similar chemical properties which was rare pasteur observed that the tartrate crystals had asymmetric shapes that mirror their optical asymmetry he discovered that crystalline paratartrate was made up of right-handed combination of crystals the crystals on the other hand showed right and left asymmetry when separated manually that is to say an optically inactive blend of right and left crystals was found optic activity showed molecular asymmetry which was discovered by pastor and established stereochemistry pasteur's research on organic compounds ability to spin the plane of polarized light continued over the next 10 years he also looked at the relationship between the structure of crystals and the arrangement of molecules there is asymmetry in living matter because of his research which convinced him that it is fundamental fermentation in the presence of bacteria few years later pasteur was named professor of chemistry and dean of leel's science faculty to assist local distillery with its production issues while working in lille he began researching the process of alcoholic fermentation as result of his work on these issues he became involved in wide range of additional fermentation-related practical and economic issues most of these puzzles were successfully solved as result of his efforts and new theoretical implications were discovered as result of them many elements of fermentation were studied by pasteur including the creation of lactic acid which causes milk to sour the fermentation of butyric acid was also topic of interest to him having been named manager and head of scientific studies at the eccle normal superior pastor went to paris in 1857 after leaving lille in the same year he gave experimental proof that living creatures are involved in all fermentative processes and that specific organism is associated with each fermentation in particular the germ theory of fermentation was born as result of these findings pasteur effect pasteur's experiments on butyric acid fermentation bolstered the idea that certain organisms were involved in fermentation following these experiments pasteur discovered the unanticipated phenomenon known as the pasteur effect in which the fermentation process can be slowed down by flowing air oxygen through the fermenting solution he came to the conclusion that the lack of oxygen was caused by the presence of life form that could only function without it to describe organisms that live in the presence or absence of oxygen he coined the terms aerobic and anaerobic he also proposed that putrefaction was caused by anaerobic functioning germs which he attributed to the observed observations pasteurization pasteur immediately adapted his knowledge of germs and fermentation to the french wine and beer industries sparing them from collapse owing to production and export contamination problems pastor examined wine contamination in 1863 at napoleon iii's request and found that bacteria were to blame simple approach was performed by pastor to ensure the safety of the wine he heated it to between 50 and 60 degrees celsius 120 and 140 degrees fahrenheit pasteurization which destroys the organisms that contribute to the aging process is rarely employed nowadays for wines that benefit from aging although it is widely utilized in the food and beverage industry particularly for milk pasteur turned his attention to beer after his success with wine he was able to establish rational framework for the brewing industry by developing effective procedures for controlling beer fermentation he also came up with way to keep beer fresh for lengthy periods of time on ships by developing process for making spontaneous generation fermentation and putrefaction were once thought to be spontaneous processes based on the old concept that life might arise out of thin air the english naturalist john turberville needham and the french scientist georges louis de bouffan count of buffon were involved in the debates of the 18th century the italian monk and physiologist lotsaro spalinsani disagreed on the issue of spontaneous creation believing that life could never arise from lifeless substance past her resolve to settle this controversy in 1859 the year charles darwin published on the origin of species as long as people believed in spontaneous generation he believed his germ theory couldn't be proven to be correct pasteur used simple experiment to solve the problem swan neck flask which has long bending neck that collects dust and other impurities before they reach the flask's body was used to sterilize beef broth however when the soup was boiled and the flask's neck was torn off after boiling the broth became turbid and showed signs of microbial contamination due to the re-exposure to air no spontaneous generation was found in these studies as boiling broth did not degenerate when not exposed to air again there were no more philosophical questions about how life began and bacteriology which relied on proven techniques for sterilizing antiseptic manipulation was established on solid basis as result silkworms following pasteur's election to the academy day sciences in 1862 the echo de bozar named him professor of geology physics and chemistry school of fine arts pasteur's focus shifted to the silkworm situation in france not long after unknown disease ravaged french silkworm nurseries in the middle of the 19th century due to the diseases spread throughout europe and eurasia including the caucasus area china and japan silkworm eggs could no longer be produced in france or imported by 1865 the silkworm industry in france and the rest of western europe had all but vanished the desire of his former master dumas prompted pasteur to accept the challenge and seize the opportunity to learn more about infectious diseases he knew nothing about silkworms one of the first people to identify the microbes that cause silkworm sickness became an expert silkworm breeder method that enabled the preservation of healthy silkworm eggs and prevented their contamination by disease-causing organisms was developed by him after five years of research once this procedure was widely accepted in europe within few years it is still used today in silk producing country prior to his appointment at the sorbonne in 1867 pastor had served as an administrator at the eccle normal superior also known as the normal superior however he continued his research even after he was rendered partially paralyzed in 1868 by left hemiplegia as result of his work on silkworms louis pasteur first learned about the intricacies of infectious illness transmission and development after seeing how silkworms differed in their response to sickness based on their physiological and environmental conditions he was surprised to learn that animals are not as predictable as laboratory methods pasteur's investigations into these issues led to the development of epidemiology techniques that he later applied to the study of animal and human disease work on vaccine in 1873 pasteur was elected an associate member of the academic scene position he held until his death in 1925. medical professionals were hesitant to accept his germ hypothesis of disease in part because it came from chemical scientist however in the following decade pasteur contributed to the basis of immunology by developing the overarching principle of vaccination disease known as chicken cholera was the focus of pasteur's first significant discovery in the field of immunization in 1879. pastorella is the genus of bacteria that caused the sickness today pasteur remarked chance only favors the prepared mind and he discovered that chicken cholera cultures lost their virulence and kept attenuated pathogenic properties over the course of many generations through chance observation chickens implanted with the attenuated strain were found to be resistant to the fully virulent strain of the disease pasteur subsequently devoted the rest of his scientific career to figuring out how to prevent sickness through vaccine in 1879 pasteur began researching anthrax anthrax had killed considerable number of sheep in france and other european countries at the time and the sickness was affecting humans as well the anthrax bacillus was discovered by german physician robert koch and pastor confirmed it both cochin pastor proved conclusively that the anthrax bacillus was the source of the infection through their own experiments medical microbiology was founded on the germ theory of disease after this for past tour anthrax was disease that could benefit from the vaccine method after figuring out what caused the bacillus to lose its virulence he created attenuated cultures of it anthrax immunization experiments were conducted on big scale in the spring of 1881 largely funded by farmers payila fort suburb of paris to the south was the site of the experiment pasteur successfully immunized 70 farm animals in his experiment vaccines of varying potency were administered at intervals of 12 days during the vaccination phase aloe virulence vaccination was administered to half of the sheep and more virulent vaccine was given to the other half vaccinated and unvaccinated sheep were infected with virulent strain of anthrax two weeks after the first inoculations all of the control sheet perished within few days however all of the vaccinated animals were unaffected many people were persuaded by this that pasteur's research was in fact sound pasteur turned his attention to the microorganisms that caused disease after the success of his anthrax immunization trial he was pioneer in infectious pathology because of his work on animals infected with pathogenic bacteria in his study of the microbial pathways that induce negative physiological consequences in animals many people believe that edward jenner an english physician made the discovery of vaccination and louis pasteur french scientist created vaccinations the first vaccination against rabies was created over 90 years after jenner began immunizing against smallpox in 1882 the year he was accepted into the academy francaise he decided to take on the rabies problem throughout history people have been fascinated by the unknown origins of rabies and the feared inflicts pasteur's final challenge would be to conquer it after his death in 1896 scientists realized they had been wrong about pasteur's theory that rabies is caused by some sort of germ the sickness was too small to be seen under pasteur's microscope therefore other methods had to be devised to study it during his trials with rabbits pasteur used intracerebral inoculations to transfer the infectious material from animal to animal until he obtained stable preparation in order to reduce the virulence of the unseen agent he dehydrated the spinal cords of animals infected with the disease he discovered afterwards that his treatment had neutralized the agent rather than weakening it as pastor assumed the agent was live thing he interpreted the neutralizing action as killing one as result rather than attenuated living microbes he had created neutralized agent which opened the door to the invention of inactivated vaccinations joseph meister nine-year-old boy who had been bitten by rabbit dog was vaccinated by pastor on july 6 1885. pastor was immediately hailed as hero after the vaccine's effectiveness pasteur's vaccine rescued hundreds of more bite victims around the world and the air of preventative medicine had begun the pastor institute in paris was inaugurated on november 14 1888 thanks to massive international fundraising effort significance of pasteur's research pasteur's work had enormous theoretical and practical implications pasteur once observed knowledge and the application of science are the only things that exist there are no pure and applied sciences in other words he looked for ways to further develop practical applications after first establishing the theoretical underpinning for specific procedure because of this he filed several patents pasteur on the other hand lacked the time and resources to fully study all of the practical implications of his many hypotheses as result of his vaccine attenuation studies he came to the critical theoretical conclusion that virulence is not continuous quality but variable property one that can be lost and subsequently restored at one time pastor believed that virulence could be reduced but now he believes that it can really be increased epidemics according to him are the result of an organism's heightened pathogenicity pastor was quoted in louis pasteur the freelance of science 1950 by american microbiologist renee duveaux thus virulence appears in new light which may be disturbing for the future of humanity and less nature in its long evolution has already had the occasions to produce all possible contagious diseases very unlikely assumption what is microorganism that is innocuous to man or to given animal species it is living being which does not possess the capacity to multiply in our body or in the body of the animal but nothing proves that if the same microorganism should chance to come into contact with some other of the thousands of animal species in the creation it might invade it and render it sick its virulence might increase by repeated passages through that species and might eventually affect man or domesticated animals thus might be brought about new virulence and new contagions am much inclined to believe that such mechanisms would explain how smallpox syphilis plague yellow fever etc have come about in the course of time and how certain great epidemics appear once in while pasteur was the first to discover that virulence might vary from one strain to another understanding the emergence of diseases such as bovine spongiform encephalopathy bse severe acute respiratory syndrome sars and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome aids is still essential to the study of infectious disease aids despite the fact that pasteur celebrated his 70th birthday at the sorbonne with huge but solemn gathering that included number of notable scientists including british surgeon joseph lister his health deteriorated further at the end of 1895 he died of paralysis remains from the cathedral of notre dame de paris were moved to the pasture institute's neo byzantine crypt in 1896 where they remained today when describing pasteur's accomplishments it's impossible to convey the breadth and depth of his life's experiences when he was convinced that truth was on his side he was infamous for his impatience and intolerance he never accepted defeat and strove to persuade skeptics throughout his life he was superb observer who was quick to incorporate new information into existing metal frameworks thank you for listening in audiobook academy don't forget to subscribe and smash that like button for more content like this see you in next video you