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400 BCE
400 B.C Aristotle
Greek philosopher, Aristotle believed that abiogenesis is one of four ways of reproduction. The reason for this thought was because the Greek Goddess Gea was able to create life from stones -
Jan 1, 1300
1300 Albert Magnus
Albert Magnus believed in the spontaneous generation despite his studies of biology including plants and animals -
1620 Jean Baptiste Van Helmont
He strongly believed in the theory of spontaneous generation. He was the one who invented the method of making mice with dirty rags and grains. -
1668 Anton Van Leeuwenhoek
Anton Van Leeuwenhoek started his study of microscopic organisms, with the microscope that was built my him. He then began a number of tests that resulted in knowing that dead meat does not “give rise spontaneously to maggots” -
1775 John Needham
John Needham began his study of science after Leeuwenhoek’s “animalcules” (cells). He heated chicken and corn broths in covered flasks. After it cooled, they teemed with microorganisms, creating controversy to what Leewenhoek had proven. However, many believe that he was not using a high quality microscope with poor theories -
1858 Rudolf Virchow
German scientist Rudolf Virchow kept the argument going on whether spontaneous generation was true or false when introducing the concept of biogenesis; living cells can arise only from preexisting living cells -
1860 Louis Pasteur
French scientist Louis Pasteur, while doing a number of experiments shows that the air itself does not create microbes and that microorganisms are present in the air and can contaminate solutions. The French scientist filled flasks with boiled beef broth, leaving some open and covering others. The result of these experiments were that the sealed flasks were free of microorganisms while the covered ones were contaminated after some days.