Louis+Pasteur

“Science knows no country, because knowledge belongs to humanity, and is the torch which illuminates the world” (Waghmare). Millions! Millions and millions of people would still be suffering from the hardships of numerous diseases that can easily be cured today if it were not for this man’s remedies. Millions of people would still be puzzled by countless of false scientific claims and just simply accept them if it were not for this man’s discoveries. Some of the people whom you call friends may not even exist today to improve your life if it were not for this man's intellect. This man has even improved how you can enjoy your food which is essential in day to day life. Now you may be wondering who this miraculous hero is. Well, it is none other than the great scientist, Louis Pasteur!
 * Introduction**

“Louis Pasteur was born on December 27, 1822, in the town of Dole, in eastern France, about 400 kilometers southeast of Paris” (Lamont). He was the son of a poor tanner so he did not have all the access and resources to a privileged life when he was young (Smith). A few years after Pasteur was born, his family moved to a new town called Arbois where he attended primary school. During his first years of schooling, the school subjects were not his forte and he did not attain good academics in any subject except for art. Later down the road, when Pasteur reached the age of 15, he moved to Paris to attend secondary school. During his stay at Paris, Pasteur always thought about his home and genuinely missed it, so before he could finish his schooling, he decided to return home (Lamont). When he was at home, “Pasteur’s father would share his experiences and opinions of the Napoleonic Wars. Later in life these shared memories would help Pasteur develop a great sense of pride and dedication to his homeland France” (Barnett). After staying back home in Arbois for a while, Pasteur finally regained the motivation to continue his schooling at Besancon. “He was successful and went on to complete his Bachelor of Science degree at the Royal College in Besancon in 1842” (Lamont). After completing his education at the Royal College, Pasteur yearned to achieve a higher standard. He was “recommended by this headmaster to apply to Ecole Normale” (Waghmare), a school “which trained teachers for French colleges and universities” (Lamont). Influenced by his headmaster and his motivation for further education, he applied for Ecole Normale (Rhee). “He passed the entrance examination in 1842, but knew he could have achieved a higher standard. So he studied for another year to improve his knowledge before entering Ecole Normale. Louis studied chemistry at the Ecole Normale, receiving a Master of Science degree in 1845” (Lamont). Two years later, Louis Pasteur was able to render yet another achievement by earning his doctorate degree in 1847 (Waghmare). “He became professor of Physics in Dijon until 1848. Pasteur’s early work was concerned with crystallography. This attracted the attention of M. Puillet and with his help he became "Professor of Chemistry at Strasbourg in 1849” (Lamont). “For many years of his life, he was teaching and carrying out research at Dijon and Strasbourg, when in 1854, he moved to the University of Lille, and became a chemistry professor” (Waghmare). As you can see, before Pasteur has even started to make any significant impacts on history, he was already quite the accomplished man.
 * Personal Background**

“Pasteur exhibited the qualities needed in a great scientist. He had the imagination to explore different solutions to problems and an interest in a wide variety of other research to spur and stimulate his own. He then had the ability to design experiments to test his theories. Most important of all was his ability to transfer his theories to applications of use to all people” (Lamont). “Being a passionate scientist, Pasteur was known to be deeply embedded in his work” (Barnett). Louis Pasteur always eagerly accepted any new scientific challenges as he loved to challenge himself. This is demonstrated when he took on the extremely difficult task of developing a vaccine for anthrax (Curtis). He was also a very careful person and was slow and cautious when solving problems to minimize mistakes. His moderate pace “which had been mistaken for lack of ability in his childhood, turned out to be one of Pasteur’s greatest assets” (Lamont).
 * Personality Traits**

Louis Pasteur has been portrayed as “a person of simplicity.” He was always “humble despite the medals and honours.” Pasteur was also a very genuine person that had a true passion for science and its wonders as he “always worked for the benefits of others, not for praise or for financial gain. However, he did not shun publicity as this was an important factor in gaining recognition of his work.” Because of his strong passion for science, “he was somewhat intolerant of opponents who rejected his work without evaluating it properly” (Lamont). All in all, Louis Pasteur was immensely successful as a scientist and as a person because of his determined mentality that “believed in hard work and perseverance” (Waghmare).

On his path to becoming a great scientist, Louis Pasteur faced many obstacles. These obstacles included problems in his scientific career and his personal life. When Pasteur was still living at home with his family, “he was brought up with a sister that was mentally retarded because of a childhood disease” (Lamont). Later on in his life, he became a professor at Dijon in 1848, and while he was there, “at the tender age of 26, Pasteur’s mother dies at Arbois. Shortly after, Louis Pasteur would marry Marie Laurent, daughter of the rector at Strasbourg University. The couple would eventually have five children, only two of which survived, the other three perishing from typhoid fever.” Louis Pasteur managed to overcome these tragedies by achieving great success in his career at the same time these disasters occurred (Barnett). Pasteur also faced challenges in his career as a scientist. For example, while doing an experiment on chickens for the vaccination of anthrax, “wild dogs broke into the cage where his infected chickens had been kept, which ruined his experiment” (Curtis). Another incident was when he was trying to find a vaccination for rabies, he “had to secure a rabid bulldog to get a sample of its saliva” (Barnett). When Pasteur got little older, he was plagued by “a brain hemorrhage and several strokes which left him partially paralyzed. His condition was often made worse by overwork.” Pasteur was able to persist through these tragedies because he “was sustained by his Christian faith.” His persevering mentality and his work ethic caused his health to efficiently decline over the years. In conclusion, his journey on becoming a magnificent scientist was often plagued by many obstacles, but these very obstacles are what made him to be the phenomenal scientist that many people remember him as today (Lamont).
 * Obstacles**

Louis Pasteur was one of the most impactful scientists in medical history since the dawn of man. He has accomplished many achievements that scientists in his time period could only have dreamt of achieving. His valuable discoveries have helped shape the future of science and have already played a huge role in today’s modern science. Pasteur is held accountable for many notable discoveries such as pasteurization, vaccinations, and many new ideas that disproved old, false ideas which resulted into the broadening of the spectrum of science. These improvements have all led to the benefits of countless lives around the world and have been remarked as “the cornerstone of modern hygienic and medical procedures” (Barnett).
 * Historical Significance**

Living in France, wine was a huge part of life and it was an important export that was strongly depended on by the French economy. Because of this, Louis Pasteur set out on a mission to prevent a huge problem of wine: spoiling. Pasteur sought to prolong the amount of time wine could be kept before it spoiled, and after some experiments, he succeeded. He “heated the wine enough to kill most of the microbes without altering its flavor. To his great delight,  Pasteur found that this process could also prevent milks from turning sour and preserve many other foodstuffs as well.” This process became known as pasteurization and is still a process widely used in the world today that helps sustain the freshness of our food (Lamont). Another reason why Pasteur is an important figure in history is because he is the man responsible for developing many vaccines for diseases that were a huge danger. Around the 1870s, French farmers were suffering economically due to their livestock dying rapidly because of a disease called anthrax. Pasteur confronted this problem and managed to develop a successful vaccine for this threatening disease in 1881 (Curtis). After discovering cures for animals, “Pasteur moved on to the next, and perhaps greatest step-diseases in humans.” At this time, humans were contracting a disease known as rabies. “The deadly disease is contracted by being bitten by an infected animal, usually a dog or wolf. In 1885, a small boy who had been bitten by a rabid dog was brought to Pasteur. After several tense weeks of treatment on the boy, it was clear that the rabies vaccine was a success” (Lamont).

In addition, Pasteur contributed many new ideas to science that were unknown to scientists at the time. For example, he experimented with tartaric acid and paratartaric acid and after he was finished examining them thoroughly, he discovered “two types of crystals which were mirror images of each other. Thus, he founded a new branch of chemistry called "stereochemistry” (Waghmare). While Pasteur was researching why fermentation occurred, he determined that microbes were causing it and his “findings helped establish a new branch of science-microbiology” (Lamont). Another one of Pasteur’s breakthrough was when “his research would lead him to the discovery of anaerobic life and gave him the insight to disprove the theory of spontaneous generation” (Barnett).

In conclusion, Louis Pasteur has earned his rightful place to be considered as a scientist with great historical significance because the methods and remedies he discovered have benefitted the world tremendously. He was acknowledged as a man with great importance when the “French government honoured Pasteur with its highest award, the Legion of Honour. Pasteur is generally recognized today as having made the greatest contribution of any one man to the saving of human lives” (Lamont). “His principles and experiments laid the foundation of immunology, which were later used by other scientists and researchers. One of the greatest scientists of our time, he laid the foundations of health and science” (Waghmare).

====Barnett, Brendon. "Louis Pasteur Biography and Timeline." //Pasteur Brewing.// 21 Dec. 2010. //Pasteur Brewing.// Web. 10 Dec. 2014. **SE #6**==== Curtis, Keith Kelley S. Dantzer, Robert.  "Disease-Environment Interactions: Another Contribution of Louis Pasteur." //<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans',sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Brain Immune. //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans',sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> 16 Aug. 2009. //<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans',sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Brain Immune. //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans',sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> Web. 3 Nov. 2014. **SE #4** <span style="font-family: 'Open Sans',sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Lamont, Ann. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans',sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> "Louis Pasteur (1822-1895) Outstanding Scientist and Opponent of Evolution." //<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans',sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Creation. //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans',sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> Dec. 1991. //<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans',sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Creation. //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans',sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> Web. 30 Sept. 2014. **SE #2** <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans',sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Rhee, Seung Yon. "Louis Pasteur (1822-1895)." //Access Excellence @ the National Health Museum.// 17 Nov. 2010. //Access Excellence.// Web. 17 Sept. 2014. **SE #1** <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans',sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Smith, Kendall. "Louis Pasteur, the Father of Immunology." //<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans',sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">PubMed Central. //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans',sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> 10 Apr. 2012. //<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans',sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">PubMed Central. //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans',sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Web. 15 Oct. 2014. **SE #3** <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans',sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Waghmare, Anuya. "Accomplishments of Louis Pasteur." //Buzzle.// 22 Jul. 2013. //Buzzle.// Web. 18 Nov. 2014. **SE #5**
 * References**