Works in Progress Podcast The history of vaccines
Nov 26, 2025
Explore the chaotic origins of vaccines, from smallpox to polio, revealing risky experiments and groundbreaking discoveries. Discover Lady Mary Wortley Montagu's role in variolation and the serendipitous insights of Edward Jenner and Louis Pasteur. Delve into the dark side of early vaccination methods, including arm-to-arm transfers and animal sacrifices. Hear about crucial advancements like cell culture techniques and the introduction of polio vaccines. This journey through scientific trial and error uncovers the remarkable evolution of immunization.
AI Snips
Chapters
Books
Transcript
Episode notes
Experiments That Killed Spontaneous Generation
- Disproving spontaneous generation required controlled, reproducible experiments linking maggots to flies and showing sealed flasks stayed sterile.
- Those experiments paved the way for germ theory by showing life didn't arise spontaneously from decaying matter.
Attenuation, Inactivation, And Scientific Drama
- Pasteur (and his assistants) showed attenuation and inactivation could make vaccines by weakening microbes through environment or chemicals.
- Public demonstrations convinced farmers, but lab secrecy and rivalries complicated scientific credit and methods.
Pouilly Live Demo And Hidden Methods
- Pasteur staged a 1881 live demonstration vaccinating animals against anthrax, where vaccinated animals survived and unvaccinated ones died.
- Later lab notebooks showed Pasteur's team used chemical inactivation, a detail kept secret due to rivalries.
