# @seed on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/BheYOXVlE7z
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/34247989-seed-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/29570942c2.jpg
- **Posted:** 2018-04-12T15:01:09.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Seed (@seed) — https://gondola.cc/seed

## Caption

A century and a half ago, three #science contemporaries (a #chemist, a #physician, and a #surgeon) entirely altered our #relationship to #bacteria. ⠀
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Louis #Pasteur (1822-1895) discovered that bacteria caused changes in our #food (#fermentation) and that they were the invisible force behind #decomposition and decay. His name lives on in the practice of ‘#pasteurization’ today, where food 🥒 and beverages 🥛 are heated to kill off the #microbes within. Around the same time, Robert Koch (1843-1910) proved that the root causes of #ancient and #modern plagues (such as anthrax or tuberculosis) were bacteria. And a surgeon named Joseph #Lister (1827-1912) saw the link between unhygienic surgical practices and infection, and introduced modern antiseptic techniques into hospitals (before Lister, doctors didn’t wash their hands before surgery or use clean scalpels 😧). He was also the namesake for a common #bathroom product you might have heard of—Listerine.⠀
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These three scientists’ contributions saved countless lives. But their #discoveries also precipitated mass germ #hysteria. In the century that followed, many misinformed and fear-based assumptions emerged—that if certain bacteria were the cause of typhoid and contaminated #water, then all bacteria must be bad, and therefore destroyed. 🤦🏻‍♀️

## Stats

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- **Likes:** 64
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## Tags

microbes, modern, hysteria, ancient, surgeon, chemist, pasteurization, bacteria, discoveries, science, fermentation, bathroom, food, relationship, pasteur, lister, water, physician, decomposition

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