Martinus Beijerinck From struggling student to hero scientist VaccineMakers.org Do you remember the Martinus Beijerinck grew up in last time you had a the Netherlands. His family was cold? You had a germ poor. He had to learn at home called a virus. We until he was 12 years old. cannot see viruses because they are so small. So how did people first learn about viruses? Our story begins in the late 1800s. Finally, he got to go to school. Beijerinck really liked He did not feel like he was as science. His favorite part good as the other kids. He of science was doing kept trying. He worked hard. experiments. He liked to Soon, he was one of the best figure out new things. students in his class. When he grew up, He found that some plant he wanted to study plants. diseases were caused by bacteria. Bacteria are a Beijerinck did many type of germ. experiments with plants! We learned a lot from his work. Material adapted from the Vax Pack Hero project produced by the Vaccine Education Center at PAGE 1 OF 2 Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. For more resources, including an online game, visit VaxPackHero.org. Martinus Beijerinck From struggling student to hero scientist VaccineMakers.org But, he also found that He did experiments to learn other plant diseases were more about viruses. He caused by something figured out how to separate that had not been viruses from bacteria using found before. a filter. Beijerinck called this new thing a virus. All of the differences He poured a mixture with between viruses and both viruses and bacteria bacteria were not figured through a filter. Viruses were out during Beijerinck’s life. small enough to go through a Other people did more filter. Bacteria were not. experiments after Beijerinck died. Today, we know that Because of Beijerinck’s viruses and bacteria work, we know that your reproduce differently. cold was caused by a virus. They both cause many kinds of diseases in plants, animals and people. Material adapted from the Vax Pack Hero project produced by the Vaccine Education Center at PAGE 2 OF 2 Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. For more resources, including an online game, visit VaxPackHero.org..