The Genius of Louis Pasteur

thetartrate/paratartrate problem that Pasteur solved) made
one of the critical discoveries for spectral analysis. Alexander
Mitscherlich established that chemical compounds,
like metals and gases, have characteristic spectra that differ
from the metallic element.
Augustin Jean Fresnel (1788-1827), also a student of
Monge, began his work on geometric optics in 1814 when
he articulated the "pulse wave" hypothesis as a devastating
challenge to Newton. By studying the aberrations in starlight
transmissions, Fresnel developed an explanation of
diffraction phenomena and fully developed the mathematics
of transverse waves.
On Method
Pasteur, who in fact was trained as a physicist at a time
that living processes were viewed as the most appropriate
field of study for physics, demonstrated the ability of biological
syntheses to generate products that rotate the plane
of polarized light. In contrast, he demonstrated that the
exact same "chemical combination" in the laboratory outside
of living systems generated products of the same precise
chemical structure and physical properties as the biological
products. However, they differed absolutely in one
fundamental property: they were not optically active.
The geometric distinction between living processes and
nonliving processes from the standpoint of their ability to
reorganize light, or electromagnetic action, is the fundamental
question of optical biophysics.
Pasteur's work constituted one of the precious few handfuls
of knowledge in our understanding of the true fundamentals
of life.
Figure 10
DOUBLE REFRACTION
AND POLARIZATION
In (a), a focused beam of natural
light is split into two beams by a
doubly refracting crystal (see Figures).
Huygens showed that one
ray (the ordinary ray) obeys the
normal law of refraction. The
other ray (the extraordinary ray)
has a refractive index that depends
on the rotation of the crystal.
The two rays are plane-polarized
at right angles to each other.
The light propagates at different
velocities in different directions:
The ordinary ray propagates with
a classic Huygens spherical wave
front; the extraordinary ray, with
an ellipsoidal wave front, as depicted
in (b).
Crystals have an optic axis; that
is, one or two directions along
which the light is not doubly refracted.
There is no better way to summarize the depth of Pasteur's
overall scientific contribution than by recalling his
own explicit ideas about the nature of fruitful scientific
method. In his innaugural speech as dean of the new Faculty
of Sciences at Lille on Dec. 7,1854, Pasteur declared:
Without theory, practice is but routine born of habit.
Theory alone can bring forth and develop the spirit of
invention. It is to you specially that it will belong not to
share the opinion of those narrow minds who disdain
everything in science which has not an immediate application.
You know Franklin's charming saying? He
was witnessing the first demonstration of a purely scientific
discovery, and people round him said: "But what
is the use of it?" Franklin answered them: "What is the
use of a newborn child?"
Warren Hamerman, a founding member of the Fusion
Energy Foundation, has a background in basic immunological
research.
Notes-
Most biologists readily accept that living systems do not obey the Second
Law of Thermodynamics. However, they accommodate themselves to a
compromise formulation elaborated by Ernest Schrodinger in the 1940s in
his lecture series called "What Is Life?" in which he said that living systems
have "negative entropy." By this he meant that although they do not obey the
Second Law, living systems are a net drain on the universe, sucking negative
entropy from the universe as a whole and thereby accelerating the process
of entropy in the universe. More recently, the Belgian theorist Prigogine has
reified the concept of negative entropy. In contrast, LaRouche's concept of
negentropy grew out of his study of economic processes in the early
1950s,which he then applied to the history of the biosphere as a whole. For
a fuller discussion of this, see LaRouche's textbook, So, You Wish to Learn
All About Economics? (New York: New Benjamin Franklin House, 1984).
FUSION September-October 1986 31