MARIE PASTEUR, LA LÉGENDE, LA MAISON DIEU ET Y'BECCA.
Marie Pasteur, née Laurent (15 January 1826 in Clermont-Ferrand, France – 28 September 1910 in Paris), was the scientific assistant and co-worker of her spouse, the famous French chemist and bacteriologist Louis Pasteur.
Louis Pasteur (/ˈluːi pæˈstɜːr/, French: [lwi pastœʁ]; December 27, 1822 – September 28, 1895) was a French biologist, microbiologist and chemist renowned for his discoveries of the principles of vaccination, microbial fermentation and pasteurization. He is remembered for his remarkable breakthroughs in the causes and prevention of diseases, and his discoveries have saved many lives ever since. He reduced mortality from puerperal fever, and created the first vaccines for rabies and anthrax. His medical discoveries provided direct support for the germ theory of disease and its application in clinical medicine. He is best known to the general public for his invention of the technique of treating milk and wine to stop bacterial contamination, a process now called pasteurization. He is regarded as one of the three main founders of bacteriology, together with Ferdinand Cohn and Robert Koch, and is popularly known as the "father of microbiology".[4][5][6]
Pasteur was responsible for disproving the doctrine of spontaneous generation. He performed experiments that showed that without contamination, microorganisms could not develop. Under the auspices of the French Academy of Sciences, he demonstrated that in sterilized and sealed flasks nothing ever developed, and in sterilized but open flasks microorganisms could grow.[7] Although Pasteur was not the first to propose the germ theory, his experiments indicated its correctness and convinced most of Europe that it was true. Today, he is often regarded as one of the fathers of germ theory.[8] Pasteur made significant discoveries in chemistry, most notably on the molecular basis for the asymmetry of certain crystals and racemization. Early in his career, his investigation of tartaric acid resulted in the first resolution of what is now called optical isomers. His work led the way to the current understanding of a fundamental principle in the structure of organic compounds.
He was the director of the Pasteur Institute, established in 1887, until his death, and his body was interred in a vault beneath the institute. Although Pasteur made groundbreaking experiments, his reputation became associated with various controversies. Historical reassessment of his notebook revealed that he practiced deception to overcome his rivals.[9][10]
Research
Molecular asymmetry
Pasteur separated the left and right crystal shapes from each other to form two piles of crystals: in solution one form rotated light to the left, the other to the right, while an equal mixture of the two forms canceled each other's effect, and does not rotate the polarized light.
In Pasteur's early work as a chemist, beginning at the École Normale Supérieure, and continuing at Strasbourg and Lille, he examined the chemical, optical and crystallographic properties of a group of compounds known as tartrates.[37]
He resolved a problem concerning the nature of tartaric acid in 1848.[38][39][40][41] A solution of this compound derived from living things rotated the plane of polarization of light passing through it.[37] The problem was that tartaric acid derived by chemical synthesis had no such effect, even though its chemical reactions were identical and its elemental composition was the same.[42]
Pasteur noticed that crystals of tartrates had small faces. Then he observed that, in racemic mixtures of tartrates, half of the crystals were right-handed and half were left-handed. In solution, the right-handed compound was dextrorotatory, and the left-handed one was levorotatory.[37] Pasteur determined that optical activity related to the shape of the crystals, and that an asymmetric internal arrangement of the molecules of the compound was responsible for twisting the light.[31] The (2R,3R)- and (2S,3S)- tartrates were isometric, non-superposable mirror images of each other. This was the first time anyone had demonstrated molecular chirality, and also the first explanation of isomerism.[37]
Some historians consider Pasteur's work in this area to be his "most profound and most original contributions to science", and his "greatest scientific discovery."[37]
Fermentation and germ theory of diseases
Pasteur was motivated to investigate fermentation while working at Lille. In 1856 a local wine manufacturer, M. Bigot, whose son was one of Pasteur's students, sought for his advice on the problems of making beetroot alcohol and souring.[43][44]
According to his son-in-law, René Vallery-Radot, in August 1857 Pasteur sent a paper about lactic acid fermentation to the Société des Sciences de Lille, but the paper was read three months later.[45] A memoire was subsequently published on November 30, 1857.[46] In the memoir, he developed his ideas stating that: "I intend to establish that, just as there is an alcoholic ferment, the yeast of beer, which is found everywhere that sugar is decomposed into alcohol and carbonic acid, so also there is a particular ferment, a lactic yeast, always present when sugar becomes lactic acid."[47] Pasteur also wrote about alcoholic fermentation.[48] It was published in full form in 1858.[49][50] Jöns Jacob Berzelius and Justus von Liebig had proposed the theory that fermentation was caused by decomposition. Pasteur demonstrated that this theory was incorrect, and that yeast was responsible for fermentation to produce alcohol from sugar.[51] He also demonstrated that, when a different microorganism contaminated the wine, lactic acid was produced, making the wine sour.[44] In 1861, Pasteur observed that less sugar fermented per part of yeast when the yeast was exposed to air.[51] The lower rate of fermentation aerobically became known as the Pasteur effect.[52]
Pasteur experimenting in his laboratory.
Institut Pasteur de Lille
Pasteur's research also showed that the growth of micro-organisms was responsible for spoiling beverages, such as beer, wine and milk. With this established, he invented a process in which liquids such as milk were heated to a temperature between 60 and 100 °C.[53] This killed most bacteria and moulds already present within them. Pasteur and Claude Bernard completed tests on blood and urine on April 20, 1862.[54] Pasteur patented the process, to fight the "diseases" of wine, in 1865.[53] The method became known as pasteurization, and was soon applied to beer and milk.[55]
Beverage contamination led Pasteur to the idea that micro-organisms infecting animals and humans cause disease. He proposed preventing the entry of micro-organisms into the human body, leading Joseph Lister to develop antiseptic methods in surgery.[56]
In 1866, Pasteur published Etudes sur le Vin, about the diseases of wine, and he published Etudes sur la Bière in 1876, concerning the diseases of beer.[51]
In the early 19th century, Agostino Bassi had shown that muscardine was caused by a fungus that infected silkworms.[57] Since 1853, two diseases called pébrine and flacherie had been infecting great numbers of silkworms in southern France, and by 1865 they were causing huge losses to farmers. In 1865, Pasteur went to Alès and worked for five years until 1870.[58][59]
Silkworms with pébrine were covered in corpuscles. In the first three years, Pasteur thought that the corpuscles were a symptom of the disease. In 1870, he concluded that the corpuscles were the cause of pébrine (it is now known that the cause is a microsporidian).[57] Pasteur also showed that the disease was hereditary.[60] Pasteur developed a system to prevent pébrine: after the female moths laid their eggs, the moths were turned into a pulp. The pulp was examined with a microscope, and if corpuscles were observed, the eggs were destroyed.[61][60] Pasteur concluded that bacteria caused flacherie. The primary cause is currently thought to be viruses.[57] The spread of flacherie could be accidental or hereditary. Hygiene could be used to prevent accidental flacherie. Moths whose digestive cavities did not contain the microorganisms causing flacherie were used to lay eggs, preventing hereditary flacherie.[62]
Spontaneous generation
Bottle en col de cygne (swan-neck bottle) used by Pasteur
Louis Pasteur’s pasteurization experiment illustrates the fact that the spoilage of liquid was caused by particles in the air rather than the air itself. These experiments were important pieces of evidence supporting the germ theory of disease.
Following his fermentation experiments, Pasteur demonstrated that the skin of grapes was the natural source of yeasts, and that sterilized grapes and grape juice never fermented. He drew grape juice from under the skin with sterilized needles, and also covered grapes with sterilized cloth. Both experiments could not produce wine in sterilized containers.[44]
His findings and ideas were against the prevailing notion of spontaneous generation. He received a particularly stern criticism from Félix Archimède Pouchet, who was director of the Rouen Museum of Natural History. To settle the debate between the eminent scientists, the French Academy of Sciences offered the Alhumbert Prize carrying 2,500 francs to whoever could experimentally demonstrate for or against the doctrine.[63][64][65]
Pouchet stated that air everywhere could cause spontaneous generation of living organisms in liquids.[66] In the late 1850s, he performed experiments and claimed that they were evidence of spontaneous generation.[67][63] Francesco Redi and Lazzaro Spallanzani had provided some evidence against spontaneous generation in the 17th and 18th centuries, respectively. Spallanzani's experiments in 1765 suggested that air contaminated broths with bacteria. In the 1860s, Pasteur repeated Spallanzani's experiments, but Pouchet reported a different result using a different broth.[58]
Pasteur performed several experiments to disprove spontaneous generation. He placed boiled liquid in a flask and let hot air enter the flask. Then he closed the flask, and no organisms grew in it.[67] In another experiment, when he opened flasks containing boiled liquid, dust entered the flasks, causing organisms to grow in some of them. The number of flasks in which organisms grew was lower at higher altitudes, showing that air at high altitudes contained less dust and fewer organisms.[44][68] Pasteur also used swan neck flasks containing a fermentable liquid. Air was allowed to enter the flask via a long curving tube that made dust particles stick to it. Nothing grew in the broths unless the flasks were tilted, making the liquid touch the contaminated walls of the neck. This showed that the living organisms that grew in such broths came from outside, on dust, rather than spontaneously generating within the liquid or from the action of pure air.[44][69]
These were some of the most important experiments disproving the theory of spontaneous generation, for which Pasteur won the Alhumbert Prize in 1862.[67] He concluded that:[44][59]
Never will the doctrine of spontaneous generation recover from the mortal blow of this simple experiment. There is no known circumstance in which it can be confirmed that microscopic beings came into the world without germs, without parents similar to themselves.
Immunology and vaccination
Chicken cholera
Pasteur's later work on diseases included work on chicken cholera. He received cultures from Jean Joseph Henri Toussaint, and cultivated them in chicken broth.[70] During this work, a culture of the responsible bacteria had spoiled and failed to induce the disease in some chickens he was infecting with the disease. Upon reusing these healthy chickens, Pasteur discovered he could not infect them, even with fresh bacteria; the weakened bacteria had caused the chickens to become immune to the disease, though they had caused only mild symptoms.[4][8]
In 1879, his assistant, Charles Chamberland (of French origin), had been instructed to inoculate the chickens after Pasteur went on holiday. Chamberland failed to do this and went on holiday himself. On his return, the month-old cultures made the chickens unwell, but instead of the infections being fatal, as they usually were, the chickens recovered completely. Chamberland assumed an error had been made, and wanted to discard the apparently faulty culture, but Pasteur stopped him.[71][72] He inoculated the chickens with virulent bacteria that killed other chickens, and they survived. Pasteur concluded that the animals were now immune to the disease.[73]
In December 1879, Pasteur used a weakened culture of the bacteria to inoculate chickens. The chickens survived, and when he inoculated them with a virulent strain, they were immune to it. In 1880, Pasteur presented his results to the French Academy of Sciences, saying that the bacteria were weakened by contact with oxygen.[70]
Anthrax
In the 1870s, he applied this immunization method to anthrax, which affected cattle, and aroused interest in combating other diseases. Pasteur cultivated bacteria from the blood of animals infected with anthrax. When he inoculated animals with the bacteria, anthrax occurred, proving that the bacteria was the cause of the disease.[74] Many cattle were dying of anthrax in "cursed fields".[59] Pasteur was told that sheep that died from anthrax were buried in the field. Pasteur thought that earthworms might have brought the bacteria to the surface. He found anthrax bacteria in earthworms' excrement, showing that he was correct.[59] He told the farmers not to bury dead animals in the fields.[75]
Louis Pasteur in his laboratory, painting by A. Edelfeldt in 1885
In 1880, Pasteur's rival Jean-Joseph-Henri Toussaint, a veterinary surgeon, used carbolic acid to kill anthrax bacilli and tested the vaccine on sheep. Pasteur thought that this type of killed vaccine should not work because he believed that attenuated bacteria used up nutrients that the bacteria needed to grow. He thought oxidizing bacteria made them less virulent.[76] In early 1881, Pasteur discovered that growing anthrax bacilli at about 42 °C made them unable to produce spores,[77] and he described this method in a speech to the French Academy of Sciences on February 28.[78] Later in 1881, veterinarian Hippolyte Rossignol proposed that the Société d'agriculture de Melun organize an experiment to test Pasteur's vaccine. Pasteur agreed, and the experiment, conducted at Pouilly-le-Fort on sheep, goats and cows, was successful. Pasteur did not directly disclose how he prepared the vaccines used at Pouilly-le-Fort.[79][77] His laboratory notebooks, now in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, show that he actually used heat and potassium dichromate, similar to Toussaint's method.[80][42][81]
The notion of a weak form of a disease causing immunity to the virulent version was not new; this had been known for a long time for smallpox. Inoculation with smallpox (variolation) was known to result in a much less severe disease, and greatly reduced mortality, in comparison with the naturally acquired disease.[82] Edward Jenner had also studied vaccination using cowpox (Vaccinia) to give cross-immunity to smallpox in the late 1790s, and by the early 1800s vaccination had spread to most of Europe.[83]
The difference between smallpox vaccination and anthrax or chicken cholera vaccination was that the latter two disease organisms had been artificially weakened, so a naturally weak form of the disease organism did not need to be found.[80] This discovery revolutionized work in infectious diseases, and Pasteur gave these artificially weakened diseases the generic name of "vaccines", in honour of Jenner's discovery.[84]
Main article: Koch–Pasteur rivalry
In 1876, Robert Koch had shown that Bacillus anthracis caused anthrax.[85] In his papers published between 1878 and 1880, Pasteur only mentioned Koch's work in a footnote. Koch met Pasteur at the Seventh International Medical Congress in 1881. A few months later, Koch wrote that Pasteur had used impure cultures and made errors. In 1882, Pasteur replied to Koch in a speech, to which Koch responded aggressively.[8] Koch stated that Pasteur tested his vaccine on unsuitable animals and that Pasteur's research was not properly scientific.[44] In 1882, Koch wrote "On the Anthrax Inoculation", in which he refuted several of Pasteur's conclusions about anthrax and criticized Pasteur for keeping his methods secret, jumping to conclusions, and being imprecise. In 1883, Pasteur wrote that he used cultures prepared in a similar way to his successful fermentation experiments and that Koch misinterpreted statistics and ignored Pasteur's work on silkworms.[85]
Swine erysipelas
In 1882, Pasteur sent his assistant Louis Thuillier to southern France because of an epizootic of swine erysipelas.[86] Thuillier identified the bacillus that caused the disease in March 1883.[58] Pasteur and Thuillier increased the bacillus's virulence after passing it through pigeons. Then they passed the bacillus through rabbits, weakening it and obtaining a vaccine. Pasteur and Thuillier incorrectly described the bacterium as a figure-eight shape. Roux described the bacterium as stick-shaped in 1884.[87]
Rabies
Pasteur produced the first vaccine for rabies by growing the virus in rabbits, and then weakening it by drying the affected nerve tissue.[59][88] The rabies vaccine was initially created by Emile Roux, a French doctor and a colleague of Pasteur, who had produced a killed vaccine using this method.[44] The vaccine had been tested in 50 dogs before its first human trial.[89][90] This vaccine was used on 9-year-old Joseph Meister, on July 6, 1885, after the boy was badly mauled by a rabid dog.[42][88] This was done at some personal risk for Pasteur, since he was not a licensed physician and could have faced prosecution for treating the boy.[6] After consulting with physicians, he decided to go ahead with the treatment.[91] Over 11 days, Meister received 13 inoculations, each inoculation using viruses that had been weakened for a shorter period of time.[92] Three months later he examined Meister and found that he was in good health.[91][93] Pasteur was hailed as a hero and the legal matter was not pursued.[6] Analysis of his laboratory notebooks shows that Pasteur had treated two people before his vaccination of Meister. One survived but may not actually have had rabies, and the other died of rabies.[92][94] Pasteur began treatment of Jean-Baptiste Jupille on October 20, 1885, and the treatment was successful.[92] Later in 1885, people, including four children from the United States, went to Pasteur's laboratory to be inoculated.[91] In 1886, he treated 350 people, of which only one developed rabies.[92] The treatment's success laid the foundations for the manufacture of many other vaccines. The first of the Pasteur Institutes was also built on the basis of this achievement.[42]
In The Story of San Michele, Axel Munthe writes of some risks Pasteur undertook in the rabies vaccine research:[95]
Pasteur himself was absolutely fearless. Anxious to secure a sample of saliva straight from the jaws of a rabid dog, I once saw him with the glass tube held between his lips draw a few drops of the deadly saliva from the mouth of a rabid bull-dog, held on the table by two assistants, their hands protected by leather gloves.
Because of his study in germs, Pasteur encouraged doctors to sanitize their hands and equipment before surgery. Prior to this, few doctors or their assistants practiced these procedures.
Controversies
A French national hero at age 55, in 1878 Pasteur discreetly told his family never to reveal his laboratory notebooks to anyone. His family obeyed, and all his documents were held and inherited in secrecy. Finally, in 1964 Pasteur's grandson and last surviving male descendant, Pasteur Valley-Radot, donated the papers to the French national library (Bibliothèque nationale de France). Yet the papers were restricted for historical studies until the death of Valley-Radot in 1971. The documents were given a catalogue number only in 1985.[96]
In 1995, the centennial of the death of Louis Pasteur, a historian of science Gerald L. Geison published an analysis of Pasteur's private notebooks in his The Private Science of Louis Pasteur, and declared that Pasteur had given several misleading accounts and played deceptions in his most important discoveries.[9][97] Max Perutz published a defense of Pasteur in The New York Review of Books.[98] Based on further examinations of Pasteur's documents, French immunologist Patrice Debré concluded in his book Louis Pasteur (1998) that in spite of his genius, Pasteur had some faults. A book review states that Debré "sometimes finds him unfair, combative, arrogant, unattractive in attitude, inflexible and even dogmatic".[99][100]
Fermentation
Scientists before Pasteur had studied fermentation. In the 1830s, Charles Cagniard-Latour, Friedrich Traugott Kützing and Theodor Schwann used microscopes to study yeasts and concluded that yeasts were living organisms. In 1839, Justus von Liebig, Friedrich Wöhler and Jöns Jacob Berzelius stated that yeast was not an organism and was produced when air acted on plant juice.[51]
In 1855, Antoine Béchamp, Professor of Chemistry at the University of Montpellier, conducted experiments with sucrose solutions and concluded that water was the factor for fermentation.[101] He changed his conclusion in 1858, stating that fermentation was directly related to the growth of moulds, which required air for growth. He regarded himself as the first to show the role of microorganisms in fermentation.[102][47]
Pasteur started his experiments in 1857 and published his findings in 1858 (April issue of Comptes Rendus Chimie, Béchamp's paper appeared in January issue). Béchamp noted that Pasteur did not bring any novel idea or experiments. On the other hand, Béchamp was probably aware of Pasteur's 1857 preliminary works. With both scientists claiming priority on the discovery, a dispute, extending to several areas, lasted throughout their lives.[103][104]
However, Béchamp was on the losing side, as the BMJ obituary remarked: His name was "associated with bygone controversies as to priority which it would be unprofitable to recall".[105] Béchamp proposed the incorrect theory of microzymes. According to K. L. Manchester, anti-vivisectionists and proponents of alternative medicine promoted Béchamp and microzymes, unjustifiably claiming that Pasteur plagiarized Béchamp.[47]
Pasteur thought that succinic acid inverted sucrose. In 1860, Marcellin Berthelot isolated invertase and showed that succinic acid did not invert sucrose.[51] Pasteur believed that fermentation was only due to living cells. Hans Buchner discovered that zymase catalyzed fermentation, showing that fermentation was catalyzed by enzymes within cells.[106] Eduard Buchner also discovered that fermentation could take place outside living cells.[107]
Anthrax vaccine
Pasteur publicly claimed his success in developing the anthrax vaccine in 1881.[93] However, his admirer-turned-rival Toussaint was the one who developed the first vaccine. Toussaint isolated the bacteria that caused chicken cholera (later named Pasteurella in honour of Pasteur) in 1879 and gave samples to Pasteur who used them for his own works.[108] On July 12, 1880, Toussaint presented his successful result to the French Academy of Sciences, using an attenuated vaccine against anthrax in dogs and sheep.[109] Pasteur on grounds of jealousy contested the discovery by publicly displaying his vaccination method at Pouilly-le-Fort on 5 May 1881.[110] Pasteur gave a misleading account of the preparation of the anthrax vaccine used in the experiment at Pouilly-le-Fort. He used potassium dichromate to prepare the vaccine.[9] The promotional experiment was a success and helped Pasteur sell his products, getting the benefits and glory.[110][111][112]
Experimental ethics
Pasteur experiments are often cited as against medical ethics, especially on his vaccination of Meister. He did not have any experience in medical practice, and more importantly, a medical license. This is often cited as a serious threat to his professional and personal reputation.[113][114] His closest partner Émile Roux, who had medical qualifications, refused to participate in the clinical trial, likely because he considered it unjust.[92] However, Pasteur executed vaccination of the boy under the close watch of practising physicians Jacques-Joseph Grancher, head of the Paris Children's Hospital's paediatric clinic, and Alfred Vulpian, a member of the Commission on Rabies. He was not allowed to hold the syringe, although the inoculations were entirely under his supervision.[91] It was Grancher who was responsible for the injections, and he defended Pasteur before the French National Academy of Medicine in the issue.[115]
Pasteur has also been criticized for keeping secrecy of his procedure and not giving proper pre-clinical trials on animals.[44] Pasteur stated that he kept his procedure secret in order to control its quality. He later disclosed his procedures to a small group of scientists. Pasteur wrote that he had successfully vaccinated 50 rabid dogs before using it on Meister.[116][117][118] According to Geison, Pasteur's laboratory notebooks show that he had vaccinated only 11 dogs.[44]
Meister never showed any symptoms of rabies,[92] but the vaccination has not been proved to be the reason. One source estimates the probability of Meister contracting rabies at 10%.[80]
Awards and honours
Pasteur was awarded 1,500 francs in 1853 by the Pharmaceutical Society for the synthesis of racemic acid.[119] In 1856 the Royal Society of London presented him the Rumford Medal for his discovery of the nature of racemic acid and its relations to polarized light,[120] and the Copley Medal in 1874 for his work on fermentation.[121] He was elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS) in 1869.[1]
The French Academy of Sciences awarded Pasteur the 1859 Montyon Prize for experimental physiology in 1860,[34] and the Jecker Prize in 1861 and the Alhumbert Prize in 1862 for his experimental refutation of spontaneous generation.[67][122] Though he lost elections in 1857 and 1861 for membership to the French Academy of Sciences, he won the 1862 election for membership to the mineralogy section.[123] He was elected to permanent secretary of the physical science section of the academy in 1887 and held the position until 1889.[124]
In 1873 Pasteur was elected to the Académie Nationale de Médecine[125] and was made the commander in the Brazilian Order of the Rose.[126] In 1881 he was elected to a seat at the Académie française left vacant by Émile Littré.[127] Pasteur received the Albert Medal from the Royal Society of Arts in 1882.[128] In 1883 he became foreign member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.[129] On June 8, 1886, the Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II awarded Pasteur with the Order of the Medjidie (I Class) and 10000 Ottoman liras.[130] Pasteur won the Leeuwenhoek Medal from the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences for his contributions to microbiology in 1895.[131]
Pasteur was made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour in 1853, promoted to Officer in 1863, to Commander in 1868, to Grand Officer in 1878 and made a Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor in 1881.[132][128]
AINSI,
12 December 2017
Europe has four more Galileo navigation satellites in the sky following their launch on an Ariane 5 rocket. After today’s success, only one more launch remains before the Galileo constellation is complete and delivering global coverage.
Ariane 5, operated by Arianespace under contract to ESA, lifted off from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana at 18:36 GMT (19:36 CET, 15:36 local time), carrying Galileo satellites 19–22. The first pair of 715 kg satellites was released almost 3 hours 36 minutes after liftoff, while the second pair separated 20 minutes later.
They were released into their target 22 922 km-altitude orbit by the dispenser atop the Ariane 5 upper stage. In the coming days, this quartet will be steered into their final working orbits. There, they will begin around six months of tests – performed by the European Global Navigation Satellite System Agency (GSA) – to check they are ready to join the working Galileo constellation.
Four Galileos on Ariane 5
This mission brings the Galileo system to 22 satellites. Initial Services began almost a year ago, on 15 December 2016.
“Today’s launch is another great achievement, taking us within one step of completing the constellation,” remarked Jan Wörner, ESA’s Director General.
“It is a great achievement of our industrial partners OHB (DE) and SSTL (GB) for the satellites, as well as Thales-Alenia-Space (FR, IT) and Airbus Defense and Space (GB, FR) for the ground segment and all their subcontractors throughout Europe, that Europe now has a formidable global satellite navigation system with remarkable performance.”
Galileos atop Ariane 5
Paul Verhoef, ESA’s Director of Navigation, added: “ESA is the design agent, system engineer and procurement agent of Galileo on behalf of the European Commission. Galileo is now an operating reality, so, in July, operational oversight of the system was passed to the GSA.
“Accordingly, GSA took control of these satellites as soon as they separated from their launcher, with ESA maintaining an advisory role. This productive partnership will continue with the next Galileo launch, by Ariane 5 in mid-2018.
“Meanwhile, ESA is also working with the European Commission and GSA on dedicated research and development efforts and system design to begin the procurement of the Galileo Second Generation, along with other future navigation technologies.”
Next year’s launch of another quartet will bring the 24‑satellite Galileo constellation to the point of completion, plus two orbital spares.
Lowering the fairing
About Galileo
Galileo is Europe’s civil global satellite navigation system. It will allow users worldwide to know their exact position in time and space with great precision and reliability. Once complete, the system will consist of 24 operational satellites and the ground infrastructure for the provision of positioning, navigation and timing services.
The Galileo programme is funded and owned by the EU. The European Commission has the overall responsibility for the programme, managing and overseeing the implementation of all programme activities.
Galileo’s deployment, the design and development of the new generation of systems and the technical development of infrastructure are entrusted to ESA. The definition, development and in-orbit validation phases were carried out by ESA, and co‑funded by ESA and the European Commission.
GSA is ensuring the uptake and security of Galileo. Galileo operations and provision of services were entrusted to the GSA in July 2017.
Galileo constellation
Learn more about Galileo at:
http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/NavigationAbout the European Space Agency
The European Space Agency (ESA) provides Europe’s gateway to space.
ESA is an intergovernmental organisation, created in 1975, with the mission to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space delivers benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.
ESA has 22 Member States: Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Slovenia is an Associate Member.
ESA has established formal cooperation with six Member States of the EU. Canada takes part in some ESA programmes under a Cooperation Agreement.
By coordinating the financial and intellectual resources of its members, ESA can undertake programmes and activities far beyond the scope of any single European country. It is working in particular with the EU on implementing the Galileo and Copernicus programmes as well as with Eumetsat for the development of meteorological missions.
ESA develops the launchers, spacecraft and ground facilities needed to keep Europe at the forefront of global space activities.
Today, it develops and launches satellites for Earth observation, navigation, telecommunications and astronomy, sends probes to the far reaches of the Solar System and cooperates in the human exploration of space. ESA also has a strong applications programme developing services in Earth observation, navigation and telecommunications.
Learn more about ESA at
www.esa.intFor further information, please contact:
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http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Navigation/Galileo_launch_brings_navigation_network_close_to_completionLa Maison Dieu est le seizième arcane majeur du tarot de Marseille.
Graphisme
Au cours du temps, le graphisme de cette carte a beaucoup évolué.
Pour Jacques Viéville (vers 1650), elle représente un arbre sous lequel un berger et son troupeau s'abritent du soleil. Dans son édition originale, le berger, les bras écartés la tête levée vers le ciel, semble recevoir une pluie, ou manne céleste, détail qui est resté dans le tarot de Marseille.
Jean Noblet (Paris, milieu du XVIIe siècle) et Jean Dodal (Lyon, 1715) optent pour la représentation d'une tour dont la coiffe ouverte laisse échapper une flamme ascendante en direction du soleil, deux hommes tombant de cette tour.
Enfin Nicolas Conver (Marseille, 1761) propose la version de la carte telle qu'elle est reproduite aujourd'hui, à savoir une représentation basée sur celle de Dodal, à ceci près que la flamme est représentée comme descendante et que le soleil a quasiment disparu.
Description et symbolisme
Elle représente soit l'humilité, soit l'égo anéanti par l'épreuve : Destruction violente des masques et autres montages fallacieux. Salvatrice, le défi d'humilité peut être douloureux.
Si la carte apparaît à l'envers, au contraire, elle signifie que l’égo est nécessaire, qu'il y a latence dans l'évolution. On peut s'ampouler d'une construction, toutefois elle protège toujours quelque chose.
Ce symbolisme de La Maison Dieu n'est pas sans rappeler celui de la Tour de Babel. Effectivement dans la tradition biblique, la Tour de Babel fut toujours considérée comme un projet ambitieux envers lequel Dieu exerça son veto (symbolisé par la foudre dans l'iconographie de La Maison Dieu).
D'autre part le nom même de Babel, nom hébreu de Babylone fut tiré de l'Akkadien bab-ili(m) signifiant « la Porte du Dieu ». On peut donc penser que le dieu de la Tour de Babel ou de La Maison Dieu n'est pas le vrai Dieu. Mais peut-être son opposé, c'est-à-dire Mammon. Ce dieu personnifiant la richesse. La traduction du mot en témoigne car en araméen le mot signifie « riche ». Donc la Tour de Babel ou la Maison Dieu seraient des allégories du capitalisme ou de l'impérialisme selon une dénomination plus biblique.
D'ailleurs la couronne sur la tour est bien là pour l'illustrer, car étant celle de Nimrod le premier roi du monde et fondateur du premier des empires selon la Bible. C'est à l'époque de la Tour de Babel qu'il régna. Son nom serait issue de l'hébreu « maradh » qui dérive du verbe « mered » signifiant « se rebeller ».
En conclusion la carte de La Maison Dieu renferme les idées d'orgueil, de richesse, d'impérialisme et de rébellion, ainsi que de chute à la suite d'une faute commise. Et si la tour est remplacée par un arbre dans le tarot de Viéville, c'est bien en rapport avec l'idée de chute. L'arbre de la connaissance du bien et du mal étant la cause de la chute adamique et à l'origine du péché originel.
Mais il y a aussi une interprétation alchimique intéressante à signaler. Le fait que le mot "taroté" se disait autrefois "d'une superficie dorée à la feuille, lorsqu'elle était poinçonnée ou gravée avec un stylet ou un poinçon pour imprimer un dessin sur l'or. Les fonds des premiers tarots enluminés étaient obtenus de cette façon." 1 a certainement éveillé l'attention des chercheurs. Il faut en effet remarquer que l'on parle des "lames" , et non des "cartes" du tarot. LA MAISON DIEV, qui en cartomancie vulgaire présage (malgré son nom) une catastrophe redoutable (telle par exemple que l'a redessinée Oswald Wirth), est interprétée comme étant un athanor alchimique dont le couvercle se soulève, et devant laquelle danse le disciple (guidé par le geste et la parole du maître). "Nous voyons en réalité une tour dont le couvercle se soulève sans difficulté, comme un couvercle. Il n'est donc pas question ici de tour foudroyée. C'est tout simplement l'athanor ou four des alchymistes au moment où se produit ce qu'on appelle la première conjonction qui est le don de Dieu. Ce qui pénètre dans la tour, c'est ce nitre coruscant qui va devenir le Mercure des Philosophes. L'athanor a été souvent décrit par les auteurs anciens comme une tour ronde de briques cimentées. Ne voit-on pas, par les trois fenêtres de cette tour, qu'elle se remplit de ce grand air qu'est l'azur céleste ? C'est là le noble sang bleu qui va peu à peu se figer en miel de charité.2
↑ G. Mandel, Les tarots des Visconti, Paris, Vilo, 1975
↑ Emmanuel d'Hooghvorst, Le Fil de Pénélope, Grez-Doiceau, Beya Editions, novembre 2009, 446 p. (ISBN 978-2-9600575-3-9), p. 250
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