ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Jørgen Pedersen Gram

Jørgen Pedersen Gram was a man who lived a long time ago and did some very important work in the field of biology. He lived in a country called Denmark and he was very interested in studying tiny things called bacteria. Bacteria are so small that you can't see them with your eyes, but they can have a big impact on our health and the world around us.

Jørgen Pedersen Gram discovered that there were two different types of bacteria: some that could be colored with a special stain, and others that couldn't. He decided to try using this stain to help him study bacteria and he found out something really interesting. When he looked at the bacteria he stained under a microscope, he saw that they had different shapes and sizes. Some were round and some were long and skinny.

But then something even more amazing happened. He noticed that some bacteria that he stained could keep their shape even when he put them in a special liquid that is normally used to wash bacteria away. Other bacteria that he stained did not keep their shape and ended up looking all raggedy and broken. This was really strange because scientists thought that all bacteria were supposed to be washed away by this liquid.

Jørgen Pedersen Gram realized that he had discovered a new way to classify bacteria. He named it the Gram stain in honor of himself. The Gram stain is still used today by scientists all over the world to help identify different types of bacteria. It's kind of like giving bacteria different colored jackets so we can tell them apart.

Thanks to Jørgen Pedersen Gram, we now have a much better understanding of the tiny world of bacteria and how we can fight against the ones that make us sick.