Louis Pasteur
Louis Pasteur is a prime example of acting scientifically and applying former knowledge. He was a confident and self-reliant scientist, which lead him to some of his most valuable discoveries.
He contradicted the German chemist Eilhard Mitscherlich about optically active and inactive crystals formed from tartars. He didn’t automatically assume that the work of this well-known chemist was accurate. Instead, he contradicted the idea after using his own prior knowledge and the research he gained from experiments about the crystals.
He also investigated the theories of ferments for himself to discover the basis of the germ theory and develop a method of cleansing the ferments: pasteurization. He made his discovery of the method of pasteurization after an industrialist commissioned
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Joseph Lister validated the theory, and it promoted hygiene, the discovery of many pathogens, pasteurization, and vaccines. Within the next 20 years, most pathogens, or bacteria, that cause most infectious diseases were found.
Pasteur worked until he was 63 developing many successful vaccines. At the climax of his scientific discoveries, and at the end of his life, as he was paralyzed in the left arm from a cerebral hemorrhage, Pasteur successfully vaccinated a boy against rabies as the boy’s last chance before a certain death from his numerous rabies-afflicted dog bites.
Louis Pasteur’s discoveries have benefitted and saved millions of people, and his discoveries were made possible by his application of former knowledge and his ability to think scientifically. These discoveries are significant to me because they protect me. Because of Pasteur’s development of vaccines, I don’t have to worry about many virulent diseases. I also can be confident in the use of pasteurized products and avoid food poisoning because of Pasteur’s