Hello guys.
It is a sad day when I have to announce I will stop doing the weekly and monthly reviews. For a time it was fun but lately it was just a chore so I will stop doing it. I dont want for Steemit to also become a chore so I intend to drop any topics that are not fun to me anymore.
But the topic I am about to talk about today is definitely a fun one. It is the time for Part 4 of the Mind Ahead of Time series, and today I will be talking about Louis Pasteur!
EARLY YEARS
Louis Pasteur was born on December 27, 1822, in Dole, France. He entered primary school in 1831 and at first Louis did not show a particular academic interest as he was more fond of sketching and fishing. He attended secondary school in Arbois where he also attended primary school after he moved there with his family in 1827.
In 1839 he started attending Collège Royal at Besançon where he studied philosophy. He successfully finished his Bachelors degree and continued his scientific studies, focusing on special mathematics. He also managed to get his scientific degree but with mediocre grades, surprisingly even from chemistry.
In the following years he applied to study at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris. He passed his first examination but with low grades, so despite being accepted he refused the invitation and went to study more at colleges like the famous Sorbonne. He came back the next year and passed the examination with flying colors.
Here he finished his Masters degree and was appointed a professor of physics at a low level university, but the professor of chemistry Antoine Jérôme Balard at École Normale Supérieure wanted him as an assistant, so he accepted. He finished his education with two thesis, one in physics and one in chemistry.
He later worked at the same school from 1858 to 1867 as the director of scientific studies.
CAREER
He started his research studying various molecular asymmetries, in particular focusing on Tartrates. He noticed a derivation of a compound that falls into the Tartrates and was crystalline rotates the polarization of light as it passes through it. He also noticed that some crystals rotated the light in one direction and the other in the other direction. This was the first observation of molecule isomers and in this manner he also found out chirality.
He also worked heavily in the field of chemistry where he researched the process of fermentation on the behest of one of his students father, who was a brewer.
He was the first to show that when the yeast responsible for fermentation was exposed to air the conversion from sugar to alcohol was much less efficient, proving that fermentation mostly works only in deoxygenated environments. In the same manner he explained the build up of lactic acid in human muscles.
During these experimentation's on fermentation he also came upon the fact that what spoils beverages that contain sugar like milk, wine and other are actually beverages. Together with Claude Bernard he patented the process of pasteurization, where the liquid is heated to temperatures between 60 and 100 degrees Celsius, which destroys any present molds or bacteria.
He also settled a hot debate that the presence of air promotes spontaneous generation of microorganisms that spoil the liquid. He simply let very hot air into a flask with a liquid that was sterilized. He also let cold air into another sterilized bottle. When the liquid with the cold air spoiled while the liquid with the hot air didnt, he showed that the organisms in the air and not the air itself promotes growth of germs in liquids.
In my opinion one of his moth important works were in the field of immunology and vaccination. He stumbled on the process of vaccination purely by chance.
He worked on researching bacteria that cause Chicken cholera. While administering a batch of very old bacteria to healthy chickens he discovered the chickens did not become infected. Frustrated with the result he prepared a fresh batch and again administered the bacteria. But the chickens again would not get sick. The weakened bacteria from the first batch produced a strong immune response that could destroy the healthy bacteria of the second batch.
By accident he stumbled upon the workings of the immune system and invented a rudimentary vaccination system.
He also implemented the same procedure for many more diseases with various amounts of success.
His incredible achievements truly make him worthy of being called a Mind Ahead of Time!
UPVOTE & FOLLOW
If you like this post upvote it. It trully means a lot to me. Also feel free to comment your thoughts that will surely lead to a lively discussion. If you want to see more from me please follow me, and check out my Hiking series and Science series. I am also a photography enthusiast and if you like it also you should check out my Beginners guide on photography.
Most importantly I started a new sci-fi opera book named Sol. Please check it out.
To improve the flow of the post I cite the sources of the pictures here:
First picture - Link
Second picture - Link
Third picture - Link
Fourth picture - Link
Big thanks to 