Louis Pasteur

One of France's greatest national heroes, Louis Pasteur's discoveries in chemistry, bacteriology and medicine opened new fields of research to generations of scientists and profoundly transformed the daily lives of all humanity. He pioneered the concept of rapid transfer of scientific information from the laboratory to industry for the benefit of his country and the world. He inspired and trained a generation of scientists who continued his revolutionary work and his traditions in the laboratory, and he established one of the world's first independent research institutes, which has since been responsible for the tuberculosis vaccine, the first sulfonamide drug, the first antihistamine and the identification of the virus which causes AIDS. The significance and number of his accomplishments have transformed Pasteur into a scientific archetype in the popular imagination. The dramas behind the achievements - Pasteur's intuitive genius, his courage and determination, and his diligent and prodigious research, as well as his ego and dogmatism - have often been obscured by this hagiography. In this biography, French immunologist and physician Patrice Debre offers a detailed account of the scientist's life, struggles and contributions. First published in France in 1994 to mark the centenary of Pasteur's death in 1895, Debre's biography draws heavily on Pasteur's own scientific notebooks and writings to present a critical account of his discoveries and of the controversies they raised with other scientists and occasionally with his closest associates. Debre also explores Pasteur's life and family, as well as his relations with the French government and the established scientific and medical communities. Pasteur had to struggle to convince his peers of the validity of his ideas and to be heard by physicians, who felt threatened by Pasteur's call for rethinking the relationship between medicine and science, between the world of research and that of treatment. The book explores his fight against the erroneous notions of the spontaneous generation of micro-organisms, strongly held by established scientists, and to introduce antiseptic procedures to protect patients against the dirty techniques of reputable surgeons. Pasteur's belief that basic research could not be totally separated from its practical applications was revolutionary in his age and continues to ignite debate today. The author points to the bearing Pasteur's ideas have on the preoccupations of modern science, particularly with regards to his emphasis on the links that must exist between the patient's bed and the scientist's microscope.