5 inventions by Louis Pasteur that changed the world
From pasteurization and fermentation to life-saving vaccines and the Pasteur pipette, Louis Pasteur’s contributions have revolutionized science and daily life.
Louis Pasteur is one of the most influential microbiologists in history. His innovations have profoundly impacted our everyday lives. From your breakfast to your bedtime routine, and in sickness and health, Pasteur’s work has shaped modern life in more ways than you might imagine. Discover five groundbreaking inventions by Louis Pasteur that you might encounter daily.
1. The importance of pasteurization
Do you enjoy a glass of milk with your breakfast or lunch? The milk you buy at the supermarket undergoes a process called pasteurization. This technique, developed by Louis Pasteur, prevents food from spoiling quickly by briefly heating it. This kills most harmful bacteria without significantly altering the product's taste. That’s why refrigerated milk tastes different from long-life milk, as the latter is heated at much higher temperatures, which affects its flavor.
2. Fermentation: from wine to kimchi
A glass of wine or beer with dinner? You can thank Pasteur for that. Pasteur initially developed pasteurization to make wine last longer for export. He was also the first to discover that microbes play a role in wine production. His research uncovered how fermentation works: a controlled process in which microbes transform foods and beverages into new products with different flavors and longer shelf lives. Think of wine, beer, yogurt, kimchi, soy sauce, kombucha, and sauerkraut.
Although Pasteur didn’t invent fermentation—it had been practiced for centuries—his work revolutionized its large-scale application. Thanks to Pasteur, fermentation processes can now be fine-tuned to achieve desired flavors and quality.
3. Advancing modern medicine
Louis Pasteur made a significant contribution to medicine by discovering that bacteria can cause diseases. While he couldn’t yet identify which bacteria caused specific illnesses, his insight that diseases didn’t arise spontaneously was groundbreaking. This discovery laid the foundation for further research still in use today. Though Pasteur’s ideas initially faced skepticism, some researchers took his findings seriously and expanded on his work. Thanks to their efforts, modern medicine has made significant strides in identifying and treating bacterial infections.
4. Vaccines that save millions of lives
Pasteur’s contributions to medicine also include life-saving vaccines. He developed vaccines for anthrax in sheep and chicken cholera, which protected French livestock on a massive scale. Pasteur also focused on humans, creating a vaccine for rabies, a deadly disease that can be transmitted from animals to humans.
By using a weakened form of the virus, Pasteur enabled the body to learn how to fight the disease without actually becoming ill. Although rabies is rare in some countries, like the UK, vaccinations are still recommended for travel to high-risk areas.
5. The Pasteur pipette: a handy laboratory tool
Pasteur’s influence extends into the world of science and research. In ARTIS-Micropia, lab technicians use the Pasteur pipette daily. This ingenious tool, invented by Pasteur, allows precise transfer of small amounts of liquid.
The pipette is simple yet effective: a long plastic tube with a bulb on top. Squeeze the bulb to expel air, release it in a liquid to draw some up, and squeeze again to dispense it drop by drop. From the museum, visitors can observe the laboratory in action. Can you spot the technicians using the Pasteur pipette?