Anaerobic life

Here comes another historical discovery of Pasteur, the Father of Microbiology – “The existence of forms of life that can live only in the absence of free oxygen” i.e. life in anaerobic form. This conclusion of presence of anaerobic life (at that time it was thought that life cannot sustain without oxygen) was drawn by him while observing the fermentation process of butyric acid. He was studying droplets collected from fermentation vats under microscope & found that the organisms at the margin of the flattened drop quickly became immotile (which were in close proximity of air) whereas that at the center remained motile. He thought that the immobility is due to the death of the organisms & the cause of it must be the contact with air. This was further confirmed when he passed air through fermentation vats of butyric acid fermentation. He found that the rate of fermentation retarded significantly & sometimes even stopped. So he at last concluded that some microorganisms can only live without oxygen and coined the names aerobes and anaerobes to designate them as life with or without oxygen.