Meet the Forgotten Woman Who Revolutionized Microbiology With a Simple Kitchen Staple

Agar is a jelly-like substance that supports the growth of bacteria and similarly small living things.

Fanny Angelina Hesse proposed agar as a replacement for gelatin to study microbes in the air in 1881 .

Gelatin offered some advantages, but it was easily consumed by microbes and melted at the high temperatures needed to cultivate bacteria.

Hesse 's great-granddaughter, Ursula Angelina von Stockhausen , found 11 original illustrations created by Hesse .

Dr. Walther Eilshemiuses discovered the power of agar, the breeding ground that allows microbes to grow, rendering them visible without a microscope.

Walther and his wife, Lina , married in Geneva in 1874 , then settled in Dresden , Saxony , Germany .

The couple was inspired by the work of German bacteriologist Robert Koch in the early 1880s .

Koch proved that bacteria caused by a bacterium, paving the way for better diagnosis and treatment.

Lina Hesse and Walther Hesse invented agar in 1882 , but their names are virtually unknown today .

Koch mentioned agar’s role in discovering Mycobacterium tuberculosis but failed to acknowledge the Hesses ’ contributions to his research.