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Francesco Redi
In 1668 Francesco Redi made the first real idea of spontaneous generation. He started by having meat in separate flasks and only covering some, the ones that weren't covered had flies lay eggs and maggots were grown on top of it. -
John Needham
in 1745 John Needham decided to create an experiment for spontaneous generation with boiling water because he knew that boiling killed microorganisms. He boiled chicken brother, sealed it, and microorganisms grew so that was a big step forward for spontaneous generation. -
Lazzaro Spallanzani
In 1768 Lazzaro Spallanzani made an experiment where he boiled 2 separate flasks of broth, he sealed one of them and kept the other one exposed to air. the one that was sealed didn't have anything growing it in, but the open one has tiny living things in it that he could see using the microscope. -
Louis Pasteur
In 1859 Louis Pasteur put an end to the idea of spontaneous generation. He boiled meat broth and bent the flask into an S shape so that air could get in but the microorganisms couldn't get in because of the way the neck was shaped. There were no microorganisms found in the flask, only resting on the neck.