Carl Zimmer

Yeah.

And this was really a controversial idea in say 1860, because, uh, you know, even then there were many people who were, were persuaded that, um,

When you found microorganisms in something, they were the result of spontaneous generation.

In other words, the beet juice spontaneously produced this life.

This was standard view of how life worked.

And Pasteur was like, I'm not sure I buy this.

And this basically led him into an incredible series of studies around Paris.

He would have a flask and he'd have a long neck on it.

And the flask was full of sterile broth and he would just take it places and he would just

hold it there for a while.

And eventually bacteria would fall down that long neck and they would settle in the broth and they would multiply in there.

They would turn cloudy.

So he could prove that there was life in the air.

And then he went to different places.

He went to farm fields, he went to mountains.

And the most amazing trip he took, it was actually to the top of a glacier.

which was very difficult, especially for someone like Pasteur, who you get the impression he just hated leaving the lab.

This was not a rugged outdoorsman at all.

But there he is, climbing around on the ice with this flask, raising it over his head, and he caught bacteria there as well.

And that actually was pivotal to destroying...