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"If a physician wishes to hold back from the lungs of his patient, or from his own, the germs by which contagious disease is said to be propagated, he will employ a cotton wool respirator…respirators must come into general use as defence against contagion" - John Tyndall, 1870
Though this isn't a controversial statement now (we'd hope), when John Tyndall shared this idea in his 1870 paper 'On Haze and Dust', he was criticised by medics for overstepping his expertise and supporting the then- nascent germ theory of disease https://theconversation.com/how-a-150-year-old-experiment-with-a-beam-of-light-showed-germs-exist-and-that-a-face-mask-can-help-filter-them-out-136391
Tyndall had made his discovery as a by-product of his experimental physics research using light beams. He wanted to clear the dust out of the beams but found it harder than expected - enter, cotton-wool
After also realising that the dust contained organic matter, including germs and disease-carrying agents, Tyndall suggested that a cotton-wool respirator would be useful for doctors to prevent the spread of disease. He also used it to develop a better gas mask for firefighters!
And he didn't stop there - 'Tyndallization' is a sterilization technique which Tyndall discovered undertaking experiments with Louis Pasteur to support the germ theory of disease
Unlike autoclaving, Tyndallization is a multi-step process which ensures bacterial spores aren't leftover to germinate after destroying bacterial cells.
Learn more about Tyndall's wide-ranging work in our latest blog by @Roland_Jackson, and follow @TyndallInstitut for more #Tyndall200 celebrations & videos showing how to recreate some of his experiments at home https://www.rigb.org/blog/2020/august/john-tyndall-200th-birthday?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social
