Louis Pasteur

Louis Pasteur was born in Dole, in the region of Dura, France, in 1822, and grew up in the town of Arbois, the son of a tanner (Cohn, 1996; Hyperlab, 2004). He was not an outstanding student in elementary school, and took an early interest in drawing. However, the headmaster of the local college recognized his potential and had him enrolled in the prestigious French university Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris, founded to train outstanding students for University careers in science and letters. Pasteur became a chemist, studying the shapes of organic crystals, and at 26 was working on his doctorate in chemistry when he discovered the science of stereochemistry. He formulated the fundamental law: asymmetry differentiates the organic world from the mineral world - symmetric molecules are always the product of life forces (Hyperlab, 2004; Rhee, 2004).

Pasteur then moved to the University of Strasbourg and continued his studies of molecular symmetry (Cohn, 1996). In 1854, he was appointed Dean and professor of chemistry at the Faculty of Sciences in Lille. Pasteur was asked by a local brewer to help him find out why alcohol becomes contaminated with unwanted substances during the fermentation process (Hyperlab, 2004). He found that each type of fermentation is caused by a specific microorganism, this idea forming the basis of microbiology. Pasteur identified and isolated the microorganisms responsible for normal and abnormal fermentation in the production of beer, wi

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