One of the biggest changes to humanity over the last 100 years has been the increase in life expectancies.

And one of the biggest reasons for the increase in lifespans have been the development and use of antibiotics.

Yet the development of antibiotics was often accidental and now they've become so ubiquitous

that it's actually becoming a problem. Learn more about antibiotics, their discovery and

their future on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. One of the reasons why it took antibiotics so long to be developed is that for most of human history we had

absolutely no idea what caused most diseases.

Civilizations and cultures around the world had different explanations for what caused diseases. In the West they called it evil humors or

myasmas. In the East diseases may have been blamed on an imbalance of Chi and in

other cultures it was simply due to the spirits and the gods. The point being no one really knew what caused diseases.

The person who actually discovered the existence of microorganisms was Antony Van Leuwenhook. In the late 17th century he used a self-designed microscope to observe the tiny life forms that existed in drops of water,

in addition to observing other cells. However, Van Leuwenhook never made the connection that some of these tiny organisms could be responsible for causing disease.

Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, even though significant advancements were being made in physics and chemistry,

there was little progress being made on the cause of disease.

If you remember back to my episode on Ignat Semmelwise,

he discovered that doctors washing their hands would dramatically reduce fatalities in the maternity hospital where he worked.

Despite such a simple remedy, there was enormous resistance to his suggestion because it didn't fit with the prevailing theory of disease.

Likewise, when John Snow discovered the cause of the cholera epidemic in London,

he didn't know what was causing cholera.

He just knew that the source of the problem was a particular water pump.

It wasn't until the later half of the 19th century that evidence began to mount for what became

known as the germ theory of disease. Louis Pasteur of France and Robert Koch of Germany were the

leading figures behind the acceptance of the germ theory of disease. The germ

...