lol!! No time is a good time to think of clues for me. Hmmm...I think I have a clue, but will hang in till I get home to add it.

Nancy.

Hmmmmmmmm, I'll be back later looking for clues.

Annette

I actually know a little about Soxhlet. He invented an apparatus to extract fats from solids and I've even used one, back in the day when I was trying to get through organic chemistry.

Sadly, that doesn't help me at all with what Pasteur was doing. I have a guess, though, and I am thinking about a beverage. I'll be lurking.

TM

Good morning everyone. Merry "week before Christmas" to you all! I have just way to much to finish and obviously not much time! Oh heaven, I'm whining again! Put a cork in it woman! Christmas will come with or without my readiness. :)

Lious Pasteur was a man we studied in school if I remember correctly. Important man in the field of veterinary medicine. He was also responsible for the rabies vaccine and others. Maybe he was a Germaphobe and not a Frenchman as commonly known? Lol!

I'm thinking you are in the right barrel TM. And I'm thinking I should get back to work and quit playing.

"A messy house is the sign of a broken computer"....or so I am told....hehe

Ginny

TM, are you hinting at adult beverages :).

Annette

I am.

I have to add more words because iVillage apparently doesn't think that "I am." is enough to constitute an actual message.

TM

You are on the right track, but be careful. Pasteur's patent was for one type of beverage (well two, but they are related). He did experiment on several liquids, including beet juice!

TM, that is funny. I am so impressed that you know about Soxhlet. Perhaps living in Germany first brought this patent to his attention before he applied it to milk.

Sorry all. I am afraid my clues are more like hints. This school year has really fried my brain.

Cynthia

Cyn ~ From what I remember, Pasteur never patented the pasturization process. His patent was for a still (for lack of a better word) of sorts which he put to use the knowledge of pasturization and how germs work (if that makes any sense). I don't remember the details but I do remember that he disproved the idea of spontaneous generation so commonly believed back in the 1800's. I remember that from a Biology text way back, come to think of it. A picture of a bag of wheat and mice coming from it......strange picture my memory recalls .......

Ginny

Oops, forgot the e in pasteurization.......

Welll, hmmm. The beverage I was thinking about isn't really an adult beverage!! It can turn on you though, lol. I was going to whine this morning, cause it was a cold walk to work, but it sure brought out the apples in my cheeks.

Now, as to Cyn's fried brain, I am confused!!

Nancy. - just home from a birthday/Christmas/Karaoke party, and realized I again forgot to hit submit. Sorry, I may be offbase, but anyway.

Good morning! Nancy, fried brain was not a clue, but rather a statement of my current confused situation-ha. In the US it is definitely an adult beverage. Not so much perhaps in other places though or in the past.

I will give you all a bit to tell me your specific answers before I give out stars.
Pick your poison!

Cynthia

OK, time to throw out a guess. I was thinking beer for a while, but something is making me go with cider, or hard cider. It doesn't seem to exactly fit, but that's my final answer. For what it's worth.

TM

Now TM, you see, I was thinking cider, but now am thinking beer, after Cyn mentioned that it is adult. I seem to recall that this is the difference between draft, or 'fresh' brewed (and once upon a time, it could go 'skunky')and bottled or now canned beer. That's my final answer!! But I think they do pasteurize ciders now!!

Nancy - who has posted her question pre-tea this am!! lol.

Still time to change your answer, TM...just sayin'

;)

Beer! I'm going with beer!

It is still dark where I live and my brain has been up all night making new ideas for Christmas stuff but I haven't changed my mind on this one. Wine; my final answer. Lol

Ginny

AND WE HAVE A WINNER! :)

I am laughing out loud here, TM! You guys are all so much fun!

So before I start cleaning, **** for Nancy and TM. Let me know if anyone else deserves stars!

Pasteur received US patent 135,245 for "Improvement in Brewing Beer and Ale Pasteurization." Although he did not patent the basic process of pasteurization which he wanted everyone to share, he did receive the aforementioned patent. Soxhlet applied the pasteurization process to infant milk. He was pretty amazing, too.

I especially like this part of Pasteur's speech read by his son at the Sorbonne on the occasion of his 70th birthday and wish mankind had already accomplished his vision:
You bring me the deepest joy that can be felt by a man whose invincible belief is that Science and Peace will triumph over Ignorance and War, that nations will unite, not to destroy, but to build, and that the future will belong to those who will have done most for suffering humanity.

Have a wonderful week, all.
Cynthia

Ha, I didn't come back soon enough, I was going between beer and wine but couldn't make up my mind so no stars for me. Thanks for another fun saturday Cyn.

Annette

Sorry Cyn. Your answer makes no sense to me. I guess I misunderstood the question.

Ginny

Just had to go and research this a bit being a perfectionist and all. I read your question as what Lious Pasteur was trying to improve since you had got the milk question backwards. From what I understand, he actually came across the process of pasteurization of milk sort of by accident as he WAS trying to find a way to keep wine from spoiling. I learned this from the other side ie; in his study of microbes (the spontaneous generation thing). He , of course, applied it to beer and he was patented for a beer making process which included the use of pasteurization. I understood your question to read what Pasteur was trying to improve and not what he patented. He did not patent pasteurization.

So , now that I understand how I misunderstood the question I found a few interesting articles that actually support my original answer. Here is one of them.

http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/cm/v14/n1/louis-pasteur

Interesting question and I think everyone would have got the milk angle. Myself, I have always been a science geek. :)

Ginny

okay, then. **** for you, too, Ginny and for Annette!

So, Ginny, do you want to take over Saturday Trivia? Happy to turn it over if you think it would be fun. It seems I never get it quite right. :)

Cynthia

Thanks Cyn, but I don't deserve the stars on this one. I really didn't know the answer I was just clutching at straws. Sort of hanging onto TM's coattails, if I had come back sooner I might have guessed beer but I didn't so there you go.

Annette

Sure you deserve stars! If Ginny gets 'em for saying wine, you do, too! It was, again, not a good question and not enough clues.

Cynthia

I thought it was a GREAT question!! I'll tell you honestly, I have heard of wine being blended for flavour, stored in caved to preserve its taste, but I had never heard of pasteurized wine. I HAD to look it up!! So, if it is done, and this is not considered necessary, it is done between fermentation and bottling. "If the wine has an alcohol content less than 14% it may be heat pasteurized or cold pasteurized through microporous filters just before bottling." - Nancy's note - most wine does have an alcohol content of less than 14%. I suspect that the cold pasteurization, or filtering is the way it is most commonly done. I always thought this was for aesthetics, to get rid of any remaining cloudy elements. Interesting.

Nancy.

I thought it was a good question considering your fried brain and all. Lol! And it's only Christmas holidays. How many more years do you have to teach???? Lol!

Thanks for the offer Cynthia but I'd rather be on the answering side. My brain works better when I have to challenge it to figure something out. I also like brain teasers. Apparently, it is good for my mental health to challenge my memory too. :) Besides, I am not constant enough.....it's the whole ADD thing with me.

Enjoyed jogging my memory on this one and look forward to next week....if there is a next week being Christmas and all. Hope you enjoy the week and the kids don't drive you crazy if you are not on holidays yet. :)

Ginny

Great question, Cynthia, and I thought your answer followed nicely from your question.

Q: Do you know what product Pasteur was trying to improve?

A: Pasteur received US patent 135,245 for "Improvement in Brewing Beer and Ale Pasteurization." i.e he improved beer brewing and ale pasteurization.

Not to say he didn't improve wine making or wine pasteurization.

I think you almost always get it totally right and I really appreciate the effort it takes to come up with a good question each week. Thank you very much for doing that.

Appreciatively,
ThinMan

No stars for me. I came too late to change my answer to beer.

Thanks TM! I appreciate your kind words.

Cynthia