Scientific discoveries of Louis Pasteur. Scientific merit of Louis Pasteur

Though medical education Louis Pasteur never had, his perseverance and ability to analyze the results obtained gave humanity a brilliant microbiologist. Pasteur saved thousands of lives by developing vaccines against many terrible diseases.

Family and studies

Louis Pasteur was born into the family of a veteran of the Napoleonic War, who had a small leather processing factory in the town of Dole. Since the father of the future chemist himself did not receive any education and could hardly read, he dreamed of seeing the success of his children. Louis did not disappoint his father: since young years he demonstrated success in reading and science. Among the other children, he hardly differed in anything, but after a few years, the teenager Louis was noted by teachers for his extraordinary powers of observation and accuracy in calculations.

He graduated from college in Arbois, where he was the youngest among the students, then went to work in Besançon as a junior teacher, and at the same time continued his studies at the Paris Higher Normal School. It was here that he became interested in chemistry, became a lecturer of the famous scientist Jean Baptiste Dumas at the Sorbonne, and began working in the laboratory on his own research.

Therefore, it is not surprising that Louis Pasteur graduated from school as an assistant professor in physical sciences, and a year later he wrote and defended his doctoral thesis.

He was not yet 26 years old when he became very famous thanks to the theory of the structure of crystals. It was Louis Pasteur who explained why the rays of polarized light are reflected differently on the crystals of substances of organic origin.

Personal life and career advancement

But besides chemistry, Pasteur had another strong passion in his life - art. He was an excellent portrait painter and had a bachelor's degree in this industry.

In 1848, Louis was offered to become a professor of physics at the Dijon Lyceum, and a few months later he was lured to the same position, but already at the University of Strasbourg.

This move changed a lot in his life besides work and career. At the University of Strasbourg, he met the rector's daughter, whom he began to court, and they soon got married. Married to Marie Laurent, they had five children, but only two survived - the rest of the children died as babies due to typhoid fever.

This personal tragedy was also a fundamental reason why Louis Pasteur worked so hard on vaccines against dangerous diseases, among which was typhus.

In 1954, a new faculty was opened at the University of Lille - natural sciences, Pasteur was offered to lead it. He agreed. And it is in Lille that he begins to be interested in biology, and not just chemistry. Fermentation was his first discovery: Louis proved that this process is not the result of chemical reactions, but biological ones. He discovered yeast. And after that he made a revolution in the field of biology, proving that there are organisms that do not need oxygen. It is anaerobic microorganisms that lead to butyric acid fermentation, which negatively affects the quality of wine and beer - drinks become bitter in taste.

In a country where winemaking was an important part of the economy, this discovery made a splash.

In 1857 he was offered the post of director of academic work in the Higher primary school Paris. Despite the fact that he did not even have his own laboratory there, Pasteur did not despair - he built a laboratory with his own money in the attic of one of the school buildings. It was there that he made his most important discoveries. And since the post of director significantly expanded his powers, he achieved a more rigorous selection of students for the university, which had a positive effect on further work university. The quality of students' knowledge has grown significantly, and the university itself has become even more prestigious than before.

Greatest discoveries

In 1869, Louis suffered an apoplexy, as a result of which the left half of the body was taken away from the scientist. But despite such a difficult condition, it was after a cerebral hemorrhage that Pasteur made his greatest discoveries, which are saving humanity so far.

In 1874, Pasteur was awarded a lifetime pension of 12,000 francs annually, nine years later, for new services to humanity, it was increased to 26,000.

Most of all, Pasteur was fascinated by practical research, the result of which could be verified very quickly. So he began by working on the diseases of wine and beer. He researched why wine, which is stored in the right conditions, often spoils. As a result of observations, he realized that foreign microorganisms are involved in the fermentation process. To get rid of them, the scientist advised to heat the drink to 50-60 degrees. Such a temperature could not harm the fermentation process, but extra microbes died because of it. The heating process was called "pasteurization" in honor of the scientist.

In addition, Pasteur worked on vaccines against infectious diseases in poultry and livestock. So, he successfully managed to develop a cure for cholera among chickens, diseases of the silkworm. In 1881, he successfully demonstrated a vaccine against anthrax, and a year later he developed a cure for rubella in pigs.

The next important step in Pasteur's work was an experimental rabies vaccine. Work on it lasted more than one year, and thanks to an accident, it was possible to test it in practice. Once, in 1885, a nine-year-old boy was brought to him, bitten by a yard mad dog. Pasteur injected the baby with medicine and it turned out that the vaccine worked. Despite the fact that the child received bites a few days before, the developed vaccine helped him - he did not get sick. A few months later, the medicine was administered to the shepherd, who had been bitten almost a week before - and the vaccine again showed an excellent result. After such an effect, in Paris alone, 350 people were vaccinated against rabies in a few weeks.

Louis Pasteur died on September 28, 1895 in the town of Vildeneuf-Lethan, near Paris. The cause of death was called a series of strokes that began with him in 1868, and uremia - the scientist's kidneys gradually failed. After the autopsy, it turned out that a huge part of his brain had been destroyed by private strokes. Moreover, this fact struck me that in such a state Pasteur made so many great discoveries.

First, Pasteur was buried in Notre Dame in Paris, but then his body was transferred to a crypt located in the institute named after him.

• Pasteur was engaged in 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. Gerome saw his work. The artist expressed satisfaction that Louis Pasteur chose science, as he could become a strong competitor in painting.
• His name was given to the genus of bacteria - 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.
• More than 2,000 streets around the world are named after Pasteur.

The fact that cheese, cream and other products important for human life are made from pasteurized milk and may not be suitable for food for a short time is known to every schoolchild today. But few people know that we owe such a discovery to the brilliant French scientist Louis Pasteur, whose biography will be considered in this article.

The process of pasteurization was invented by the French microbiologist and chemist Louis Pasteur many years ago, he was already a respected scientist during his lifetime. He discovered that microbes are responsible for the souring of alcohol, and in pasteurization bacteria are destroyed by heating. His work led him and his team to develop the anthrax and rabies vaccine. He is known for many achievements and discoveries, for example, modern medicine owes him fundamental developments in the field of maintenance and development of immunity. In the course of many years of experiments, he managed to develop vaccines against various animal diseases, and his rabies vaccinations saved the lives of many people even then.

Biography of Louis Pasteur: childhood

Louis Pasteur, the third of five children, was born on December 27, 1822 in the French town of Dole, where he lived with his parents and siblings for three years. After the family moved, he grew up and studied in the city of Arbois. In the early school years Louis Pasteur, Interesting Facts whose biography we are considering, showed at first an unexpressed talent in the field scientific subjects, but rather artistic, because he spent a lot of time writing portraits and landscapes. He studied diligently and attended school, then was busy for a while at the college in Arbois, before moving on to the Royal College in Besançon.

Education of the future great scientist

Every year, Louis Pasteur, whose biography is discussed in this article, increased his knowledge. As a result, his academic success did not go unnoticed, which is why he soon began teaching at the Higher Normal School in Paris. He received a Bachelor of Arts (1840) and a Bachelor of Science (1842) from the Royal College of Besançon, and a Doctor of Science (1847) from the École Normale in Paris.

Pasteur spent several years studying and teaching at the Dijon Lyceum. In 1847, Louis received his doctorate in natural sciences, for which he prepared two dissertations in the chemical and physical fields. During his stay in Paris, he attended many lectures at the Sorbonne, especially sitting up for a long time in chemistry classes.

First discoveries in chemistry

While still a student, Pasteur conducted several experiments to study the crystal structure and activity of tartaric acid. In 1849, a scientist was trying to solve a problem regarding the nature of tartaric acid, a chemical found in wine fermentation deposits. He used the rotation of polarized light as a means to study crystals. When polarized light passed through the solution, the tilt angle of the light plane rotated. Pasteur noticed that another compound called tartaric acid is also found in wine fermentation products and has the same composition as tartaric acid. Most scientists assumed that the two compounds were identical. However, Pasteur noticed that tartaric acid did not rotate plane polarized light. He determined that although these two compounds have the same chemical composition, they still have different structures.

Looking at tartaric acid under a microscope, Pasteur found two different types of tiny crystals. Although they looked almost the same, they were actually mirror images of each other. He separated these two types of crystals and began to study them carefully. When polarized light passes through them, the scientist saw that both crystals rotate, but in the opposite direction. When both crystals are in a liquid, the effect of polarized light does not differ. This experiment established that studying the composition alone is not enough to understand how Chemical substance behaves. Structure and shape are also important, and this led the researcher to the field of stereochemistry.

Academic career and scientific achievements

Initially, Pasteur planned to become a science teacher, as he was greatly inspired by the knowledge and abilities of Professor Dumas, whose lectures he attended at the Sorbonne. For several months he worked as a professor of physics at the Lyceum in Dijon, then in early 1849 he was invited to the University of Strasbourg, where he was offered the position of professor of chemistry. Already from the first years of his work, Pasteur took an active part in intensive research activities, developed professionalism in himself and soon began to enjoy a well-deserved reputation as a chemist in the scientific world.

The biography of Louis Pasteur (in English Louis Pasteur) specifically mentions the year 1854, when he moved to Lille, where a department of chemistry was opened just a few months ago. It was then that he became the dean of the department. At the new place of work, Louis Pasteur showed himself to be an extremely innovative teacher, he tried to teach students, focusing primarily on practice, which was greatly helped by the new laboratories. He also implemented this principle as director of scientific work at the Higher Normal School in Paris, a position he took in 1857. There he continued his pioneering work and made some rather bold experiments. He published the results of his research at that time in the journal of the Higher Normal School, the creation of which was initiated by himself. In the 1960s, he received a lucrative commission from the French government to research the silkworm, which took him several years. In 1867, Louis Pasteur was called to the Sorbonne, where he taught as a professor of chemistry for several years.

Successful chemical discoveries and the biography of Louis Pasteur

In addition to his distinguished academic career, Louis Pasteur has also made a name for himself in the field of chemical discoveries. Already in the first half of the 19th century, scientists knew about the existence of the smallest living beings in the products of wine fermentation and during the souring of food. Their exact origin, however, was not yet fully known. But Louis Pasteur, in the course of various experiments in his laboratory, found out that these organisms enter the products through the air, cause various processes there, and also cause all kinds of diseases, and they can exist there without oxygen. Pasteur called them microorganisms or microbes. Thus he proved that fermentation is not a chemical but a biological process.

The practical benefits of Pasteur's scientific discoveries

His discovery quickly spread among specialists, and also found its place in the food industry. The scientist began to look for ways to prevent the fermentation of wine, or at least slow down this process. Louis Pasteur, whose biography is known today to every scientist, found out in the course of his research that bacteria are destroyed when heated. He continued his experiments and found that by briefly heating to a temperature of 55 degrees Celsius, and then instantly cooling, it is possible to kill bacteria and at the same time get the characteristic taste of wine. So the chemist developed new method short heating, which today is called "pasteurization". Today it is widely used in Food Industry for preserving milk, products made from it, as well as vegetables and fruit juices.

Work in the field of medicine

In the seventies XIX years century, Louis Pasteur, whose biography and achievements are known to every schoolchild today, devoted himself to developing a method that is known today as immunization. He first focused his research on chicken cholera, a contagious disease that is deadly to humans. Working with experimental pathogens, he found that the antibodies formed by the animals helped to withstand the disease. His research helped develop vaccines against other deadly diseases such as anthrax and rabies in the coming years.

An important breakthrough in the field of medicine came from the scientist's idea of ​​​​vaccination against rabies, which he developed in 1885 during his work with rabbits. The first patient to be saved in this way was a small boy who had been infected by the bite of a rabid dog. Since Pasteur introduced the vaccine before the disease even entered the brain, the little patient survived. Pasteur's vaccine made him famous internationally and earned him a reward of 25,000 francs.

Personal life

In 1849, Louis Pasteur, whose biography and photo are discussed in this article, met Anne Marie Laurent, the daughter of the rector of the university, in Strasbourg, and married her in the same year. In a happy marriage, five children were born, of which only two survived to adulthood. The death of his nine-year-old daughter Jeanne, who died of typhus, prompted the scientist to study later and vaccination against this terrible disease.

Sunset of the great explorer

Biography of Louis Pasteur (at French Louis Pasteur) is rich historical events and discoveries. But no one is completely immune from disease. Since 1868, the scientist was partially paralyzed due to a severe cerebral stroke, but he was able to continue his research. He celebrated his 70th birthday at the Sorbonne, where a number of prominent scientists took part, including the British surgeon Joseph Lister. During this time his condition worsened and he died on September 28, 1895. Biography of Louis Pasteur on English language and on many others today is available for study by his descendants.

Louis Pasteur was born on September 18, 1822 in the small French town of Doyle. His father, a veteran of the Napoleonic Wars, made a living by running a small leather workshop. The head of the family never finished school and could barely read and write, but he wanted a different future for his son. The tanner spared no expense, and after graduating from high school, young Louis was sent to college, where he continued his education. They say that it was difficult to find a more diligent student in all of France. Pasteur showed unprecedented perseverance, and in letters to the sisters he talked about how much success in the sciences depends on "desire and work." No one was surprised when, after graduating from college, Louis decided to take the exam at the Higher Normal School in Paris.

Successfully passed entrance tests, Pasteur became a student. The money that the leather workshop brought in was not enough for education, so the young man had to earn extra money as a teacher. But neither work nor passion for painting (Pasteur received a bachelor of arts degree, painted many portraits that were highly appreciated by artists of that time) could not distract the young man from his passion for the natural sciences.

Vaccination of a boy bitten by a rabid dog. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

Already at the age of 26, Louis Pasteur received the title of professor of physics for his discoveries in the field of the structure of tartaric acid crystals. However, in the process of studying organic substances, the young scientist realized that his vocation was not physics at all, but chemistry and biology.

In 1826, Louis Pasteur received an invitation to work at the University of Strasbourg. While visiting Rector Laurent, Pasteur met his daughter Marie. And a week after they met, the rector received a letter in which the young professor asked for the hand of his daughter. Pasteur saw Marie only once, but he was completely sure of his choice. In a letter, he honestly informed the father of the bride that “in addition to good health and good heart He has nothing to offer Marie. However, Mr. Laurent for some reason believed in the happy future of his daughter and gave permission for the wedding. Intuition did not fail - the Pasteurs lived in harmony for many years, and in the person of Marie, the scientist found not only his beloved wife, but also a faithful assistant.

Wine and chickens

One of the first works that brought Pasteur fame was a work on fermentation processes. In 1854, Louis Pasteur was appointed Dean of the Faculty of Natural Sciences at the University of Lille. There he continued the study of tartaric acids, which had begun at the Higher Normal School. Once, a wealthy wine merchant knocked on Pasteur's house and asked the scientist to help him. Local winemakers could not understand why wine and beer spoiled. Pasteur enthusiastically set about solving an unusual problem. Examining the must under a microscope, Pasteur discovered that in addition to yeast fungi, there are also microorganisms in the form of sticks in wine. In the vessels where the sticks were present, the wine turned sour. And if the fungi were responsible for the process of alcoholic fermentation, then the sticks were the culprits of spoiling wine and beer. Thus, one of the greatest discoveries was made - Pasteur explained not only the nature of fermentation, but also made the assumption that microbes do not originate by themselves, but enter the body from outside. To solve the problem of wine spoilage, Pasteur began by creating an environment free of bacteria. The scientist heated the wort to a temperature of 60 degrees to kill all microorganisms, and wine and beer were prepared on the basis of this wort. This technique is still used in industry today and is called pasteurization in honor of its creator.

Louis Pasteur in his laboratory. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

Despite the fact that this discovery brought recognition to Pasteur, those times were difficult for the scientist - three of Pasteur's five daughters died of typhoid fever. This tragedy prompted the professor to study infectious diseases. Examining the contents of abscesses, wounds and ulcers, Pasteur discovered many infectious agents, including staphylococcus and streptococcus.

Pasteur's laboratory in those days resembled a chicken farm - the scientist identified the causative agent of chicken cholera and tried to find a way to counteract this disease. The professor was helped by chance. The culture with cholera microbes was forgotten in the thermostat. After the dried virus was injected into the chickens, they, to the scientist's surprise, did not die, but suffered only a mild form of the disease. And when the scientist infected them again with a fresh culture, the chickens did not develop a single symptom of cholera. Pasteur realized that introducing weakened microbes into the body could prevent further infection. Thus, vaccination was born. Pasteur named his discovery in memory of the scientist Edward Jenner, who, to prevent smallpox, injected patients with the blood of cows infected with a form of this disease that is safe for humans (the word "vaccine" comes from the Latin vacca - "cow").

After a successful experiment with chickens, Pasteur developed a vaccine against anthrax. The prevention of this disease in cattle saved the French government a lot of money. Pasteur was given a life pension and was elected to the French Academy of Sciences.

Mad Dogs

In 1881, a scientist witnessed the death of a five-year-old girl bitten by a rabid dog. What he saw impressed Pasteur so much that he set about creating a vaccine against this disease with great zeal. Unlike most microorganisms that the scientist had to deal with before, the rabies virus could not exist on its own - the pathogen lived only in brain cells. How to get a weakened form of the virus - this question worried the scientist. Pasteur spent days and nights in the laboratory infecting rabbits with rabies and then dissecting their brains. He personally collected the saliva of sick animals directly from the mouth.

The professor personally collected the saliva of rabid animals directly from the mouth Photo: www.globallookpress.com

Relatives seriously feared for the health of the professor - it left much to be desired even without overwhelming loads. 13 years earlier, when Pasteur was only 45, he suffered a severe stroke, which turned the scientist into an invalid. He never recovered from his illness - his arm remained paralyzed, and his leg was dragging. But this did not prevent Pasteur from making the greatest discovery of his life. From the dried brain of a rabbit, he created a vaccine against rabies.

The scientist did not risk conducting tests on people until the mother of a boy who had been badly bitten by a rabid dog approached him. The child had no chance to survive, and then the scientist decided to administer a vaccine to him. The child recovered. Then, thanks to the Pasteur vaccine, 16 peasants bitten by a rabid wolf were saved. Since then, the effectiveness of rabies vaccination has not been questioned.

Pasteur died in 1895 at the age of 72. For his services, he received about 200 orders. Pasteur had awards from almost every country in the world.

This brilliant discovery formed the basis of the principles of asepsis and antisepsis, giving a new round in the development of surgery, obstetrics and medicine in general.

Thanks to his research, not only pathogens of infectious diseases were discovered, but effective ways fight them. This is how vaccines against anthrax, chicken cholera, and swine rubella were discovered.

In 1885, Louis Pasteur developed a vaccine against rabies, a disease that in 100% of cases ends in the death of the patient. There is a legend that in childhood, the future scientist saw a man bitten by a rabid wolf. little boy I was very shocked by the terrible picture of cauterization of the bite site with a red-hot iron. But when Pasteur nevertheless created a vaccine, he hesitated for a long time to test the effectiveness of the anti-rabies vaccine in humans. In the end, he decided to test the effect of the vaccine on himself. But chance helped: a boy was brought to him, bitten by a rabid dog. The child would have died anyway, so Pasteur injected the child with tetanus toxoid. After 14 injections, the boy recovered.

From that moment on, Pasteur's fame spread throughout the world. IN different countries Pasteur stations began to open, where they were vaccinated against rabies, anthrax and chicken cholera. In Russia, such a station appeared in 1886 in Odessa and was at that time the second in the world on the initiative of scientists I. I. Mechnikov and N. F. Gamaleya.

Pasteur and his followers, as well as Dr. Jenner, had to fight for the recognition of a new way to prevent infectious diseases. His experiments were questioned and criticized for their scientific views. His belief in his rightness is perfectly illustrated by one story that has already become a legend.

Louis Pasteur studied smallpox bacteria in his laboratory. Suddenly, a stranger appeared to him and introduced himself as the second of a nobleman, who thought that the scientist insulted him. The nobleman demanded satisfaction. Pasteur listened to the messenger and said: "Since they call me, I have the right to choose a weapon. Here are two flasks; in one smallpox bacteria, in the other - pure water. If the person who sent you agrees to drink one of them, I will drink the other.” The duel did not take place.

Pasteur created the world scientific school microbiologists, many of his students later became major scientists. They own 8 Nobel Prizes. It was Pasteur who laid down one of the cornerstone principles scientific research, evidence, saying the famous "never trust what is not confirmed by experiments."

In the 20th century, prominent scientists developed and successfully used vaccinations against poliomyelitis, hepatitis, diphtheria, measles, mumps, rubella, tuberculosis, and influenza.

Key dates in the history of vaccination

• 1769 - First immunization against smallpox, Dr. Jenner
• 1885 - First immunization against rabies, Louis Pasteur
• 1891 - First successful serotherapy for diphtheria, Emil von Behring
• 1913 - the first prophylactic vaccine against diphtheria, Emil von Behring
• 1921 - first vaccination against tuberculosis
• 1936 - First tetanus vaccination
• 1936 - First flu vaccination
• 1939 - the first vaccination against tick-borne encephalitis
• 1953 - First trial of an inactivated polio vaccine
• 1956 - polio live vaccine (oral vaccination)
• 1980 - WHO statement on the complete elimination of human smallpox
• 1986 - the first genetically engineered vaccine (HBV)
• 1987 - First conjugate vaccine against Haemophilus influenza B
• 1994 - the first genetically engineered bacterial vaccine (acellular pertussis)
• 1999 - development of a new conjugate vaccine against meningococcal C infection
• 2000 - First conjugate vaccine to prevent pneumonia

Louis Pasteur (correctly Pasteur, fr. Louis Pasteur; December 27, 1822, Dole, Jura department - September 28, 1895, Villeneuve-l'Etang near Paris) - an outstanding French microbiologist and chemist, member French Academy (1881).

Pasteur, having shown 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 the phenomenon of polarization formed the basis of stereochemistry.

Pasteur also put an end to the centuries-old dispute about the spontaneous generation of some life forms at the present time, empirically proving the impossibility of this (see Origin of life on Earth). His name is widely known in non-scientific circles due to the pasteurization technology he created and later named after him.

Louis Pasteur was born in the French Jura in 1822. His father, Jean Pasteur, was a tanner and veteran of the Napoleonic Wars. Louis studied at the College of Arbois, then Besancon. 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 showed himself to be a talented artist, his name was listed in the reference books of portrait painters of the 19th century.

the first scientific work Pasteur completed in 1848. Studying physical properties tartaric acid, he discovered 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 singled out two types of them, which are, as it were, mirror images of each other. A sample consisting of crystals of one type rotated the plane of polarization clockwise, and the other - counterclockwise. A mixture of the two types 1:1, of course, did not have optical activity.

Pasteur came to the conclusion that crystals are composed of molecules of various 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 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 as well.

After this work, Pasteur was appointed associate professor of physics at the Dijon Lyceum, but three months later, in May 1849, he moved on as an associate professor of chemistry at the University of Strasbourg.

Pasteur began studying fermentation in 1857. At that time, the prevailing theory was that this process has chemical nature(Yu. Liebig), although works on its biological nature have already been published (C. Cañar de Latour, 1837), which did not have recognition. By 1861, Pasteur had shown that the formation of alcohol, glycerol, and succinic acid during fermentation could only occur in the presence of microorganisms, often specific ones.

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 then dominant view of fermentation as a chemical process.

Particularly convincing were Pasteur's experiments with a liquid containing pure sugar, various mineral salts, which served as food for the fermenting fungus, and ammonia salt, which supplied the necessary nitrogen to the fungus.

The fungus developed, increasing in weight; ammonium salt was wasted. 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.

After that, Pasteur showed that lactic fermentation also requires the presence of a special enzyme, which multiplies in the fermenting liquid, also increasing in weight, and with the help of which it is possible to cause fermentation in new portions of the liquid.

At the same time, 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 fermentation. The reproduction of such microbes causes rancidity of wine and beer. Fermentation thus turned out to be an anaerobic process, life without respiration, because it was adversely 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. Thus it was shown that anaerobic life is less efficient. It has now been shown that aerobic organisms are able to extract almost 20 times more energy from one amount of organic substrate than anaerobic ones.

In 1860-1862 Pasteur studied the possibility of spontaneous generation of microorganisms. He carried out an elegant experiment by taking a thermally sterilized nutrient medium and placing it in an open vessel with a long neck bent down.

No matter how long the vessel stood in the air, no signs of life were observed in it, since the bacteria contained in the air settled on the bends of the neck. But as soon as it was broken off, colonies of microorganisms soon grew on the medium. In 1862, the Paris Academy awarded Pasteur a prize for resolving the issue of the spontaneous generation of life.

In 1864, French winemakers turned to Pasteur with a request to help them develop means and methods to combat 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 the harmful "organized enzymes", he proposed to warm the wine at a temperature of 50-60 degrees. This method, called pasteurization, has found wide application both in laboratories and in the food industry.

In 1865 Pasteur was invited by his former teacher south of France to find the cause of the silkworm disease. After the publication in 1876 of Robert Koch's work The Etiology of Anthrax, Pasteur devoted himself entirely to immunology, finally establishing the specificity of the pathogens of anthrax, puerperal fever, cholera, rabies, chicken cholera, and other diseases, developed ideas about artificial immunity, proposed a method of preventive vaccinations, in particular from anthrax (1881), rabies (together with Emile Roux 1885).

The first rabies vaccination was given on July 6, 1885, to 9-year-old Josef Meister at the request of his mother. The treatment ended successfully, the boy recovered.

Pasteur was engaged in biology all his life and treated people without receiving any medical or biological education. Pasteur also painted as a child. When Zharome saw years later his work, he said how good it was that Louis chose science, since he would be a great competitor to us.

In 1868 (at the age of 46) Pasteur suffered a cerebral hemorrhage. He remained disabled: his left arm was inactive, his left leg dragged along the ground. He nearly died, but eventually recovered.

Moreover, he made the greatest discoveries after that: he created the anthrax vaccine and the rabies vaccine. When the brilliant scientist died, it turned out that a huge part of his brain was destroyed.

Pasteur was a passionate patriot and hater of the Germans. When they brought him from the post office German book or a pamphlet, he took it with two fingers and threw it away with a feeling of great disgust. Later, in retaliation, a genus of bacteria, Pasteurella, was named after him, causing septic diseases, and to the discovery of which he, apparently, had no relation.

More than 2000 streets in many cities of the world are named after Pasteur.

The Institute of Microbiology (later named after the scientist) was founded in 1888 in Paris with funds raised by international subscription. Pasteur became its first director.