The man who made the bacteria stained

Anyone who clicks on this Friday of the Google homepage, instead of the usual Logos of the subscribed variant of a gentleman with moustache to see. In one scene, he dribbles a colored solution on a slide. What he gets to see when looking through a microscope, seems to surprise him greatly.

The beard is Hans Christian Gram. Today 166 years, the bacteriologist, was born in Copenhagen, Denmark. Google pays tribute to him to mark the occasion with a Doodle.

But what, exactly, is supposed to represent in the drawing? And why Grams findings still have relevance? Google refers to in his statement on a series of experiments, the Gram between 1883 and 1885, in Berlin, by led. You helped to make certain pathogens are visible and to increase in this way, the healing and prevention possibilities drastically.

Simply put, it is succeeded Gram, bacteria by a novel staining method in one of two groups: gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria. The difference lies primarily in the way the cell walls are constructed. In the case of the gram-positive bacteria, the sheath is multi-layered and relatively thick. In the case of the gram-negative it is accordingly thin.

The Test is still used today – under Grams name

The researchers Gram demonstrated this property by discoloration of bacteria in the laboratory and then on again. In doing so, he observed, how much the dye, the bacterial charges. The gram-positive bacteria were relatively a lot of color. Later, the method of science was developed in learning more, however, it is still used today as a Gram stain.

Crucial to the everyday lives of many contemporaries Grams was that he made his discovery, among other things, the fight against the pathogen of pneumonia easier. Pneumococcus can cause serious infections and are still a feared disease.

Grams of research, however, has been instrumental in the development of antibiotics, and thus save countless lives around the world.