Happy birthday, Microbiology!
According to Institut Pasteur (Lille, France):
"(...) 2007 is the year of the 150th anniversary of Microbiology, born in Lille on August 3rd 1857, when Louis Pasteur, then dean of the Science Faculty at the Lille University, presented his work on lactic acid fermentation at the Société des Sciences de Lille"(So my congratulations arrive some months late)
I don't know how many people support such a defined birthday for Microbiology (do other sciences have birthdays?). Undoubtedly, Pasteur's work is a major milestone in the study of microbes, from both technical and conceptual points of view, but... was there no microbiology before Pasteur? (see links below)
Anyway, Institut Pasteur and we all have many reasons to celebrate the work of the great scientist, and the anniversary is being celebrated with conferences and other events. Among these, an international scientific symposium will be held at Lille on December 10th-12th, including sessions on Cellular Microbiology, Molecular Microbiology/Genomics, Host-pathogen interaction/immunity, and Virology.
Some links with basic notions on microbiology history:
- Highlights in the History of Microbiology (St. Louis Community College)
- A Brief History of Microbiology (MicrobiologyBytes)
- Early History of Microbiology (The Guardians of the Millennium)
- A Brief History of Microbiology (CliffsNotes)
In Spanish:
- Concepto e Historia de la Microbiología (Fac. de Agroindustrias, Argentina)
- Historia de la Microbiología - Personajes históricos (Microbios.com.ar)
- Breve Historia de la Microbiología (es.geocities.com/joakinicu)
- Historia de la Microbiología (Universidad de Salamanca, España)
If you know other interesting websites on the history of Microbiology (in any language), you may share them with us by adding a comment to this post (click on "comments" below).
