Tag Archives: microorganisms

The first microsporidian identified was found infecting silkworms. In 1870, Louis Pasteur, the French chemist who invented the process of pasteurization, blamed it for a disease that had decimated the industry. Initially, they were classified as fungi, then renamed protists, a catch-all group for complex micro-organisms. Read the full article…

Micro-organsims were first discovered about 250 years ago. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723), a Dutch civil servant, learned how to make excellent lenses from which he also built some of the earliest microscopes. Leeuwenhoek used his microscope to look at lots of different things, including drops of water. When he looked at water drops magnified many times, he saw bacteria swimming …