Pasteur and the beer of national revenge (2017) | Hacker News Reader

Pasteur and the beer of national revenge (2017)

garshol.priv.no

48 pointsgeox12 comments

Given the option to advance scientific knowledge AND cripple the German economy and their haughty beer brewers it's no wonder Pasteur was motivated. From our position, it's amazing to read the sort of nonsense the learned men of the day supposed happened during fermentation - a lot of it was not too far removed from blaming the whole thing on elves or gremlins.

Well, they had recently discovered modern chemistry. No wonder everything looked like chemistry to them, even if they couldn't yet identify the substances involved.

After Pasteur, scientists began to think that every disease was caused by microorganisms. It took a while for the world to accept the idea that some diseases, like scurvy, could be caused by the absence of a substance. To someone educated in the latest chemistry and biology of the time, that idea might have looked just as ridiculous as phlogistons at first.

Phlogistons didn’t look ridiculous at first, though. It’s easy in retrospective to sit on the top of accumulated curated knowledge in a condescending fashion and laugh at traps into which past scientists fall into.

It might look odd that Robert Boyle went as far as concluding that phlogiston has negative mass, but we yet have to wonder what future human generations will think about dark matter and dark energy.

I think my wording was confusing. The phrase "at first" was supposed to qualify the idea of vitamins, not phlogistons. In other words, "You think the lack of this substance causes scurvy? What is this negative pathogen you're talking about, phlogistons?"

> From our position, it's amazing to read the sort of nonsense the learned men of the day supposed

What "our position" are you talking about? There was (and in some cases, currently is) widespread opposition to a basic safety measure like covering your nose and mouth during a pandemic of a respiratory disease. You will regularly see videos of our supposedly enlightened populace losing their shit when someone else wears these basic respiratory protections.

It's always easier in hindsight to laugh at earlier populations and their seeming stupidity. I'm sure people in the future will be doing the same at our inability to contain the Covid pandemic.

I don't see much difference between quantum mysticism and elves/gremlins. Each age has its guiding metaphors, and the one thing I'm certain of is that ours will inevitably look silly.

Be sure to click on the link at the end of the article that takes you to the story of Emil Chr. Hansen at the Carlsberg brewery. Pasteur's work was important but Hansen was the one who had the most influence on brewing.

Although the article mentions that this research had few practical applications for beer fermentation, in 1888 Pasteur work with the Champagne makers Joseph Perrier led to critical improvements in bottle explosion rates.

>Germany attacked France in July 1870

It was France that declared war on Germany.

If we have to be pedantic, France declared war over Prussia. Germany did not exists at the time.

And because Prussia mobilized much more effectively, it attacked France first.

You are being nitpicky about the names while missing the substance. The first battle was the French capture of Saarbrucken. So no, Prussia did not "attacked first".

I am sorry you feel I am being nitpicky.

You are right that behind words like "attack" or "Germany" they are complex human interactions that are hard to understand in retrospect, but I fell obligated to push that discussion a little further: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ems_Dispatch

Have a good day.

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