Louis Pasteur (1822-1895), renowned for his microbiology work, also discovered molecular chirality, thereby launching stereochemistry. After a century of often hagiographic literature extolling Pasteur's accomplishments, recently several negative appraisals have appeared. The foremost such publication, The Private Science of Louis Pasteur, a book by Gerald L. Geison (1943-2001), is highly critical of Pasteur's chirality work. Geison's analysis, however, contains many errors of science. For example, he refers to the phenomenon of chirality as �asymmetry� rather than 'chirality' or �dissymmetry� (Pasteur's term for chirality), a fundamental error since asymmetry is not synonymous with chirality. Geison also misunderstands the effects of crystallization on optical activity, Pasteur's amyl-alcohol studies, the state of organic chemistry in Pasteur's time, Biot's notions, etc. Crucially, Geison fails to grasp the primary significance of Pasteur's chirality work: the discovery of the phenomenon of molecular chirality. Geison's conclusions are therefore unfounded and his overall judgment of Pasteur deeply flawed.

Critique of Gerald Geison's deconstruction of Louis Pasteur's chirality work

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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