Pasteur

[ pa-stur; French pah-stœr ]

noun

1. Louis [loo, -ee, lwee], 1822–95, French chemist and bacteriologist.

Pasteur

/ pastœr /

noun

1. PasteurLouis18221895MFrenchSCIENCE: chemistSCIENCE: bacteriologist Louis (lwi). 1822–95, French chemist and bacteriologist. His discovery that the fermentation of milk and alcohol was caused by microorganisms resulted in the process of pasteurization. He also devised methods of immunization against anthrax and rabies and pioneered stereochemistry

Pasteur

/ păs-tûr′ /

1. French chemist who founded modern microbiology. His early work with fermentation led him to invent the process of pasteurization. Pasteur established that microorganisms cause communicable diseases and infections.

Other Words From

• Pas·teuri·an adjective

Biography

Through his experiments with bacteria in the 1860s, French chemist Louis Pasteur disproved the centuries-old belief that disease was caused by spontaneous generation, the idea that disease-causing parasites arise spontaneously in an organism. Pasteur demonstrated that the fermentation of wine to vinegar was caused by living agents that entered the wine from the air surrounding it, proving instead that microorganisms were able to reproduce. Drawing the conclusion that airborne agents could enter the bodies of humans and animals and cause disease, he then devoted his research to isolating the organisms that cause specific diseases and finding treatments to prevent them. He developed vaccines for anthrax, chicken cholera, and rabies. Pasteur's germ theory of disease was not immediately accepted, but thanks to the work of other pioneering scientists, such as Robert Koch, it eventually provided the foundation for modern branches of medicine such as microbiology, bacteriology, virology, and immunology. Pasteur is also known for developing pasteurization (originally for wine), a process of heating and rapidly cooling liquids that is used to kill disease-causing bacteria, particularly in dairy products.

Example Sentences

He was a lowly lab assistant at the Pasteur Institute in Paris when he first collected the data that would lead to the discovery of bacteriophages.

From Salon

Last year, the Pasteur Institute won €2 million from the European Research Council to launch its IndexThePlanet project to catalog all data in the SRA.

From Science Magazine

In Phnom Penh, the national laboratory sent Virun’s sample down the road to the Institut Pasteur, the Cambodian outpost of a global network of public health research centers that date from the French colonial era.

From Seattle Times

In the 1860s, French microbiologist Louis Pasteur discovered that heating wine and beer killed the organisms that caused spoilage, which then was a significant problem in France.

From Salon

The process of heating milk to a specific temperature for a specific period of time and then allowing it to rapidly chill is named for the French chemist and germ theory pioneer Louis Pasteur.

From Los Angeles Times