How Did Louis Pasteur Contribute To The Field Of Fermentation?
Louis Pasteur was a chemist, turned microbiologist, turned veterinary medicine pioneer, turned vaccine maker. As a chemist, he was originally interested in the light bending properties of certain crystalline solutions. During the course of his study of these solutions he discovered that certain types of solutions were created by biological processes. As he investigated this phenomenon he was led to investigate the field of fermentation where he essentially discovered the aerobic and anaerobic bacteria responsible for fermentation. This discovery, that a biological agent was responsible for the fermentation (and also for the spoiling) of wine and beer, shook the scientific world as many at the time believed in spontaneous eruption. But
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He was attempting to create a way to cure or even prevent the disease. During his experiments, he would infect a batch of chickens who would then die of the disease. One assumes he was taking copious notes and puzzling this out, but eventually he left on a brief vacation, and his lab assistant continued the work while he was gone. This was where serendipity showed its hand. The lab assistant infected another group of chickens using an older culture. Perhaps the culture was destined for the incinerator and he felt it a waste, or maybe he was too lazy to cook up a new batch. At any rate, he inoculated the chickens with this old culture and when Pasteur returned from his hiatus, the chickens were still alive. This puzzled the scientist, who was under the impression that the chickens should be dead. Rather than throw out these results and chalk one up to chance, Pasteur began to dig into the cause. In the video Gone Sideways, Dean Simonton says “chance only favors a prepared mind” and by the results, Pasteur’s mind was definitely prepared! Once the lab assistant confessed the change in protocol, Pasteur devised another experiment. He would re-infect this batch of ‘miracle chickens,’ along with a group of uninfected chickens, with a new, fresh culture and see what happened. This created surprising results. The previously infected chickens did not get sick while the ‘normal’ chickens died from the
He was attempting to create a way to cure or even prevent the disease. During his experiments, he would infect a batch of chickens who would then die of the disease. One assumes he was taking copious notes and puzzling this out, but eventually he left on a brief vacation, and his lab assistant continued the work while he was gone. This was where serendipity showed its hand. The lab assistant infected another group of chickens using an older culture. Perhaps the culture was destined for the incinerator and he felt it a waste, or maybe he was too lazy to cook up a new batch. At any rate, he inoculated the chickens with this old culture and when Pasteur returned from his hiatus, the chickens were still alive. This puzzled the scientist, who was under the impression that the chickens should be dead. Rather than throw out these results and chalk one up to chance, Pasteur began to dig into the cause. In the video Gone Sideways, Dean Simonton says “chance only favors a prepared mind” and by the results, Pasteur’s mind was definitely prepared! Once the lab assistant confessed the change in protocol, Pasteur devised another experiment. He would re-infect this batch of ‘miracle chickens,’ along with a group of uninfected chickens, with a new, fresh culture and see what happened. This created surprising results. The previously infected chickens did not get sick while the ‘normal’ chickens died from the