Louis Pasteur was born on December 27, 1822 in Dole, in the region of Jura, France. He solved the mysteries of rabies, anthrax, chicken cholera, silkworm diseases, and contributed to the development of the first vaccines. His discovery that most infectious diseases are caused by germs, known as the "germ theory of disease", is one of the most important in medical history. His work became the foundation for the science of microbiology, and a cornerstone of modern medicine.

With certainty, one hallmark of Pasteur's research was not only the importance of his individual discoveries, but the overwhelming breadth of his accomplishment. Pasteur's long time collaborator, Emile Duclaux, wrote, "A mind ... of a scientific man is a bird on the wing; we see it only when it alights or when it takes flight. ... We may by watching closely keep it in view, and point out just where it touches the earth. But why does it alight here and not there? Why has it taken this direction and not that in its flight toward new discoveries?"

Pasteur, himself, provided us with an answer: He believed that his research was "enchained" to an inescapable, forward moving logic. As we review Pasteur's scientific discoveries we shall see the truth of this statement: how one discovery, one concept, led almost "inescapably" to another.