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BIOGRAPHIES OF GREAT SCIENTISTS
Pasteur Louis. Biography of a scientist
Directory / Biographies of great scientists
The most inspired words about him belong to the remarkable Russian scientist K. A. Timiryazev. About Pasteur's death, he wrote: "And here we have a picture that has never been seen before. A simple scientist descends into the grave, and people - not only those close to him, not only fellow countrymen, but representatives of all countries and peoples, of all persuasions, of all degrees of development, governments and private individuals - compete with each other in an effort to give the calmed worker the last honor, to express feelings of boundless, genuine gratitude. Louis Pasteur was born December 27, 1822. He was the son of a retired French soldier, owner of a small tannery in the town of Dole. Louis grew up in a large friendly family. Pasteur's father, who had not received any education, almost illiterate, dreamed of seeing his son as an educated person and tried to develop in him a desire for knowledge. His son pleased him with his success in learning and extraordinary diligence. He read a lot, loved to draw, but, perhaps, he did not particularly stand out from his peers. And only exceptional accuracy, observation and the ability to work with great enthusiasm made it possible to foresee a future scientist in him. Despite poor health and lack of funds, Pasteur successfully completed his studies, first at a college in Arbois, and then in Besançon. After graduating here with a bachelor's degree, he entered the Higher Normal School in 1843, which trains teachers for high schools. Louis was especially interested in chemistry and physics. At school, he listened to Balar's lectures. And the famous chemist Dumas went to listen to the Sorbonne. Work in the laboratory captured Pasteur. In his enthusiasm for experiments, he often forgot about rest. After graduating from school in 1847, Pasteur passed the exams for the title of assistant professor of physical sciences. And a year later he defended his doctoral dissertation. Then Pasteur was not yet twenty-six years old, but he had already gained fame for his research in the field of crystal structure. The young scientist gave an answer to a question that had remained unresolved before him, despite the efforts of many leading scientists. He discovered the reason for the unequal influence of a beam of polarized light on the crystals of organic substances. This outstanding discovery later led to the emergence of stereochemistry - the science of the spatial arrangement of atoms in molecules. Also in 1848, Pasteur became associate professor of physics at Dijon. Three months later, he takes up a new position as associate professor of chemistry in Strasbourg. Pasteur took an active part in the revolution of 1848 and even joined the National Guard. In 1849 Pasteur married Marie Lauren. They had four children. But two of them, unfortunately, died very young. Their family relationships were exemplary. Louis and Marie respected each other, appreciated humor. In 1854 he was appointed dean of the Faculty of Natural Sciences in Lille. With his characteristic keen powers of observation, Pasteur noticed that asymmetric crystals were found in substances formed during fermentation. He became interested in the phenomena of fermentation, began to study them, and these studies led him to extraordinary discoveries. So Pasteur - a chemist and physicist - first touched the fascinating field of biology. Fermentation phenomena interested Pasteur not by chance. He was never an armchair scientist shutting himself off from the demands of life. Pasteur was well aware of the enormous role that winemaking played in the economic life of France, and it is entirely based on the phenomena of grape juice fermentation. In a small, modest laboratory at Lille in 1857, Pasteur made a remarkable discovery. He proved that fermentation is not a chemical process, as was customary then to think, but a biological phenomenon. It turned out that any fermentation (alcohol, acetic acid, etc.) is the result of the vital activity of special microscopic organisms - yeast fungi. At the same time, 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 acid fermentation. The reproduction of such microbes causes rancidity of wine and beer. In 1857 Pasteur returned to Paris as vice-principal of the Higher Normal School. At first, he did not have an independent department and laboratory for work, as a result of which he was forced to arrange a laboratory at his own modest expense in the attic of the school. From this small laboratory came the largest of his works on microbiology. In 1862, he was elected a member of the "institute" for the department of mineralogy, and a few years later, the permanent secretary of the institute. In 1867-1876 he held the chair of chemistry at the Faculty of Paris. Pasteur was willing to study practical problems. When French winemakers turned to him with a request to help them develop means and methods for combating wine diseases, in 1864 he began to study this issue. 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 suggested heating 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. The solution to the phenomena of fermentation was not only of great importance for French winemaking, which suffered huge losses from the "diseases of wine", but also played an exceptional role in the development of biological science, the practice of agriculture and industry. Deep knowledge of the nature of fermentations makes it possible to control their processes. This is very important for baking, winemaking, and the manufacture of many food substances. In the middle of the 1865th century, an epidemic that struck silkworms in the southern regions of France assumed enormous proportions and threatened to undermine sericulture. Pasteur, after some hesitation, accepted the proposal to study diseases of silkworms. During the period 1869-XNUMX he went every summer to Ala and worked here on this subject in a small house where he had a worm-water. He was assisted in his work by his wife, daughter and students from the Normal High School: Duclos, Gernet, Mallo and Rolent ... Pasteur's research made it possible to establish that the epidemic was caused by two different diseases. The first, most dangerous of them, pebrin, is characterized by the presence in the body of insects at all stages of their development of special bodies that are the causative agents of the disease. These bodies can pass from the mother's body into the eggs, and thus the disease is transmitted to the offspring. Pasteur developed a very effective way to combat this disease, which consists in selecting for breeding offspring of butterflies that are not affected by the pathogen. The second disease - flacheria was defeated much easier. Thanks to the work of the scientist, sericulture was saved in the south of France and in Italy. Pasteur also studied the diseases of beer and found that spoilage of beer also occurs due to the ingress of microorganisms, which can be destroyed by heating to a temperature of 50-55 degrees. As a result of many years of hard work with a microscope in the study of diseases of the silkworm, Pasteur was struck in 1869 with an apoplexy and paralysis of half of the body. The consequences of this disease remained with him for the rest of his life. The war of 1870 between Germany and France made a depressing impression on Pasteur: for a long time he could not return to normal, calm work. After this war, he sent a vigorous refusal to the medical faculty of the University of Bonn, which a few years before, in respect of his scientific merits, awarded him the degree of doctor of medicine. In 1874, the Chamber of Deputies, in recognition of outstanding services to his homeland, awarded him a lifetime pension of 12 francs, increased in 000 to 1883 francs. In 26 Pasteur was elected a member of the French Academy. Starting with unraveling the "diseases" of wine and beer, the brilliant scientist devoted his entire future life to the study of microorganisms and the search for means of combating pathogens of dangerous contagious diseases of animals and humans. All existing achievements in the fight against contagious diseases of humans, animals and plants would have been impossible if Pasteur had not proved that these diseases are caused by microorganisms. But in order to prove this, it was first necessary to refute the hypothesis of spontaneous generation, which dominated science before Pasteur's work. Pasteur did it brilliantly. In his scientific dispute with the famous French scientist Pouchet Pasteur, numerous experiments proved irrefutably that all microorganisms can arise only through reproduction. Where microscopic germs are killed and their penetration from the external environment is impossible, there are no and cannot be microbes, there is neither fermentation nor putrefaction. These works of Pasteur revealed the fallacy of the view, widespread in medicine of that time, according to which any diseases arise either inside the body or under the influence of spoiled air ("miasma"). Pasteur showed that the diseases that are now called contagious can only occur as a result of infection, that is, the penetration of microbes into the body from the external environment. The whole theory and practice of combating contagious diseases of humans, animals and plants is based on this principle in our time. In 1880, Pasteur isolated a culture of the causative agent of chicken cholera, which was maintained by frequent subcultures in meat broth. The case allowed him to make one of the greatest discoveries. Once the culture of the causative agent of chicken cholera was left in a thermostat for several weeks without reseeding to new media. This culture lost its ability to kill chickens even at high doses, and Pasteur suggested that the introduction of such weakened cultures of microbes could create immunity in animals to this disease, similar to how cowpox inoculation protects humans from smallpox. This assumption has been brilliantly confirmed experimentally. Thus, a method of protection against infectious diseases was found by introducing weakened pathogens, which turned out to be applicable to many infectious diseases and played an enormous role in the fight against them. A public test of the effectiveness of anthrax vaccination, conducted in 1881, brilliantly confirmed the value of the method proposed by Pasteur. In 1882, Pasteur and his collaborators began studying rubella in pigs. Having isolated the pathogen, the scientist obtained weakened cultures of this microbe, which he successfully used as a vaccine. But before the vaccination method was fully accepted, Pasteur had to endure a difficult struggle. To prove the correctness of his discovery, Pasteur decided to make a massive public experiment. He injected dozens of sheep and cows with the germs of anthrax, a deadly disease for these animals. Half of the experimental animals Pasteur pre-injected his vaccine. On the second day, all unvaccinated animals died from anthrax, and all vaccinated animals remained alive and did not get sick with this disease. This experience, which took place in front of numerous witnesses, was a triumph for the scientist. Since then, Pasteur's vaccinations have saved thousands of farm animals from anthrax. Penetrating further and further into the unexplored world of pathogenic microbes, Pasteur set himself the most difficult task - to find a way to combat rabies. The causative agent of this most dangerous disease at that time was unknown. It is now known that this is the smallest microorganism - a virus; it is visible only at huge magnifications in an electron microscope. Pasteur developed a method of inoculating against rabies, using the dried brains of rabbits infected with rabies in a special way. Many experiments on animals gave positive results, but the scientist did not dare to test this remedy on humans. But what if it has a detrimental effect on a person? On July 6, 1885, a child was brought to Pasteur, who had been bitten two days earlier by a rabid dog. After painful hesitation, the scientist decided to apply his method of vaccination to save the victim. As a result, the boy, despite the severity of the bites, remained healthy. A few months later, a rabies vaccine was given to a young shepherd who had been badly bitten by a rabid dog. Despite the fact that vaccination was started only six days after the bites, in this case the disease did not occur. Shortly after the publication of Pasteur's first reports on protective vaccinations against rabies, people from all countries who had been bitten by rabid animals began to flock to him. By March 1, 1886, 350 people had been successfully vaccinated in Paris. Pasteur stations have appeared in different countries, making vaccinations against rabies. In Russia, the first such station was organized in 1886 on the initiative of the outstanding Russian scientists I. I. Mechnikov and N. F. Gamaleya. But Pasteur and his followers had to fight hard for the recognition of a new way to prevent infectious diseases. What kind of attacks did not survive Pasteur! Reactionary scientists and journalists said that he had no right to practice medicine without a medical degree. The scientist was reproached for refuting scientific views that had existed for centuries, his experiments were questioned. One failure was enough for Pasteur to be accused of infecting and killing people with his vaccinations. The great scientist, who benefited mankind, was at one time threatened with murder charges! In 1889, Pasteur resigned from all duties in order to devote himself to the organization and management of the institute named after him. Pasteur's scientific merits were repeatedly evaluated during his lifetime; thus, the Royal Society of London awarded him two gold medals in 1856 and 1874; The French Academy of Sciences awarded him a prize for his work on the question of spontaneous generation. Pasteur created the world scientific school of microbiologists, many of his students later became major scientists. Pasteur was a staunch friend of Russia and was on close terms with many Russian scientists. Almost all Russian microbiologists of that time went to work with Pasteur, and later at his institute in Paris. Here is what Pasteur told his students: “Be sure that you have discovered an important scientific fact, burn with a feverish desire to inform the whole world about it and restrain yourself for days, weeks, sometimes years; enter into a struggle with yourself, strain all your strength to destroy the fruits yourself of his labors and not to proclaim the result obtained until he has tried all the contradictory hypotheses - yes, this is a difficult feat. In 1892, the seventieth anniversary of the birth of the scientist was solemnly celebrated, and on September 28, 1895, Pasteur died in Marne-la-Coquet, near Paris. When Pasteur was already a world-famous scientist, he said: "In life you need to devote all your efforts to do the best that you can ... let me tell you the secret of my luck. My only strength is my perseverance." Author: Samin D.K.
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