Born on this day in 1822: Louis Pasteur was one of the first scientists to discover the role of microorganisms in disease and how sickness could be prevented by vaccines.
was one of the first scientists to discover the role of microorganisms in disease and how sickness could be prevented byAt the time, it was widely believed that putrefaction – the spoiling of food – and fermentation were chemical processes, caused by oxygen in the air. In the 1830s, two scientists, Theodor Schwann and Charles Cagniard de la Tour, used microscopes to observe that beer yeast was composed of reproducing cells, and proposed that alcohol was a product of their growth.
Pasteur realised that microbes were responsible for spoiling food, and just as importantly for France’s economy, wine. He discovered that heating wine to 55C killed bacteria and stopped wine from spoiling, without affecting the taste. The process became known asIn 1880, Pasteur reported experiments on chicken cholera, which Jean Joseph Henri Toussaint had earlier isolated.