/oss/taxonomy/term/2655/all en /oss/article/covid-19-history/will-virus-have-last-word <p>“Gentlemen, it is the microbes who will have the last word.” Those words spoken by Louis Pasteur a century and a half ago are unnervingly meaningful today as we confront the SARS-CoV-2 virus that is invading virtually every aspect of our life. Pasteur may be best known for formulating the germ theory of disease, but he is also one of the fathers of the science of immunology. </p> Fri, 29 May 2020 14:37:09 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 8263 at /oss /oss/article/health-nutrition/how-louis-pasteur-beat-beet-problem-and-changed-medicine-forever <p>Pasteur, who was then a young professor of chemistry at the University of Lille, was saddled with a problem faced by many researchers today. He needed funding and sought help from private manufacturers. They were often skeptical about the need for research but were generally won over by Pasteur's thrilling lectures and insight. "Where will you find a young man” Pasteur asked, “whose curiosity will not immediately be awakened when you put into his hands a potato, and when with that potato he may produce sugar, and with that sugar, alcohol?" </p> Wed, 06 Mar 2019 16:03:17 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 7630 at /oss /oss/article/history-you-asked/what-was-meant-chardonnet-silk Sun, 18 Nov 2012 23:41:56 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 1804 at /oss /oss/article/health-nutrition-quackery/chemistry-lesson-food-babe-and-everyone-else-12-cream-tartars-many-uses <p>In chemical terms, it is potassium hydrogen tartrate which is basically partially neutralized tartaric acid. Pasteur became interested in the chemistry of winemaking and launched into a study of tartaric acid and its various salts. He found that sodium ammonium tartrate which he prepared from natural tartaric acid was not exactly the same as the version made from tartaric acid that had been synthesized in the laboratory.</p> Wed, 15 Feb 2017 22:07:01 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 1464 at /oss