To the 200th anniversary of Louis Pasteur’s birth

Louis Pasteur, an outstanding French microbiologist and chemist, was born on December 27, 1822.

Pasteur discovered the microbiological essence of fermentation and many human diseases, became, together with Ferdinand Kohn and Robert Koch, one of the founders of microbiology and immunology. His work in the field of studying the structure of crystals and the phenomenon of light polarization formed the basis of stereochemistry. Pasteur also put an end to the centuries-old dispute about the existence of the so-called “vital force” that leads to the constant emergence of the living from the non-living, having experimentally proven the impossibility of this.

His name is widely known in food technology circles thanks to the pasteurization technology he created and later named after him.

Pasteur was engaged in biology all his life and treated people without receiving either medical or biological education. Pasteur was also engaged in painting as a child. When the French artist Jean-Leon Jerome saw his work years later, he said it was good that Louis had chosen science, because he would have been a great competitor to us. In 1868, at the age of 46, Pasteur had a cerebral hemorrhage. He remained disabled: his left arm did not work, his left leg dragged on the ground. He almost died, but eventually recovered. Moreover, he made the most significant scientific discoveries after that: he created a vaccine against anthrax and vaccination against rabies. When the scientist died, it turned out that part of his brain was destroyed. Pasteur died of uremia.

Pasteur was the first to propose the idea of the possibility of life without germs. The science of sterile organisms — gnotobiology — is based on this idea.

Pasteur was awarded orders of almost all countries of the world. In total, he had about 200 awards.