While the issue of spontaneous generation lasted as at the time, some other scientist like Girolamo Fracastoro was interested about the transmission of the disease caused by these microorganisms. Girolamo Fracastoro was an Italian scientist, a poet and scholar in mathematics, astronomer and geography, and who in 1546 proposed that epidemic diseases are caused by […]
GIROLAMO FRACASTORO (1478-1553) Read More »
General Microbiology
Francesco Redi, an Italian scientist was the first scientist to challenge the theory of spontaneous generation by demonstrating that living organisms did not actually originate from non-living things. He developed a scientific experiment to test the spontaneous creation of maggots from fresh meats using two jars (one of the jars was left open while the
FRANCESCO REDI (1626-1697) Read More »
General Microbiology
Nicolas Appert, a French chef and a confectioner is the “father of canning”, and was the inventor of airtight food preservation which is still applicable today in the food industry. He developed a heating process in which canned foods (e.g. milk, meat, drinks, and vegetables) could be preserved and prevented from spoilage by microbial fermentative
NICOLAS APPERT (1749-1841) Read More »
General Microbiology
Ferdinand Cohn, a German biologist was born in Breslau (now in Poland). Cohn was the first to classify algae (a type of microorganism), and he is also one of the founders of modern microbiology and bacteriology. Ferdinand Cohn successfully distinguished algae from plants, and he also classified bacteria into four (4) different groups in terms
FERDINAND J. COHN (1828-1898) Read More »
General Microbiology
Edward Jenner was the pioneer of the dreaded smallpox vaccination and also the father of immunology. Jenner, an English physician in 1798 successfully vaccinated a boy named James Phipps against smallpox (caused by variola virus). Smallpox was a disease that reached an epidemic level in the 17th-18th century, and the disease negatively impacted humanity causing
EDWARD JENNER (1749-1823) Read More »
General Microbiology
Louis Pasteur, a French scientist was the first to report the role of microorganisms in fermentation in 1848. Though a trained chemist, Pasteur was also one of the first scientists to recognize the significance of optical isomers, and he emerged one of the greatest biologists of the 19th century. Louis Pasteur achieved distinction in organic
LOUIS PASTEUR (1822-1895) Read More »
General Microbiology
One of the traditional arguments against abiogenesis was the claim that the heat used to sterilize the air or specimens was destroying a vital force of life which did not allow microorganisms to spontaneously appear. People believed for many centuries the concept of spontaneous generation, i.e. the creation of life from organic matter. The proponents
JOHN TYNDALL (1820-1883) Read More »
General Microbiology
Alexander Flemming, a Scottish born physician who spent most of his time studying bacteria discovered the world’s first antibiotic “Penicillin” from the mould Penicillium notatum. Though, mankind has used a number of chemicals including herbs to treat infectious diseases since time immemorial, the astonishing discovery of penicillin (the first therapeutically used antibiotic) marked the beginning
ALEXANDER FLEMMING (1881-1955) Read More »
General Microbiology
Avery Oswald was a Canadian-born American physician and medical researcher who provided the molecular explanation for Griffith’s transformation of Streptococcus pneumoniae. Avery was one of the first molecular biologists and a pioneer in immunochemistry, but he is best known for his discovery in 1944 that DNA is the material of which genes and chromosomes are
AVERY OSWALD (1877-1955) Read More »
General Microbiology
Hans Gram developed a microbiological technique which is still used today in clinical microbiology practice and bacteriology in particular for microbial identification and classification. His technique is generally used in microbiology for differentiating and classifying bacteria into two major types based on their reaction to certain stains or dye. The technique he developed is called
HANS CHRISTIAN JOACHIM GRAM (1853-1938) Read More »
General Microbiology