In 1856, Pasteur was able to observe the microbes responsible for alcoholic fermentation under a microscope, as a professor of science in the University of Lille.[1][2] According to a legend originating in the 1900 biography of Pasteur, one of his chemistry students--an owner of a beetroot alcohol factory in Lille--sought aid from him after an unsuccessful year of brewing.[6] Pasteur performed experiments at the factory in observation of the fermentation process, noticing that yeast globules became elongated after lactic acid was formed, but round and full when alcohol was fermenting correctly.[6]