-
Aristotle Origin of Spontaneous Generation
Aristotle is the orginator of the Spontaneous Generation Theory. He claimed that things could arise from non living matter so long as they contained vital heat. He didn't believe that the world had a beginning, he thought the world was continuously undergoing Spontaneous Generation. -
Francesco Redi's Experiment
Fancesco Redi conducted an experiment where he took meat and placed them into two jars. One of which he sealed and the other he left exposed. After a few days the open jar contained maggots where the closed one did not. Disproving the Spontaneous Generation theory. -
John Needham's counter argument
John Needham tried to counter Francesco's claim by placing broth into jars and boiling it. He found that life did grow inside the jar, however the truth of the matter is, he did not boil it for long enough and he did not remove the air. -
Lazzaro Spallanzani Repeats Experiment
Lazzaro Spallanzani repeated the experiment originally conducted by John Needham, but this time removed all air from the flasks. This time no growth occurred. -
Louis Pasteur's Spontaneous Generation Experiment
Louis Pasteur filled a flask with a liquid and heated it to kill all life. Then he drew the neck of the flask into a long s shape. This prevented microorganisms from entering, however he found that if the neck was broken, organisms could enter. This ended most debate amongst scientists. -
John Tyndall and Sterilaztion
John Tyndall showed the existence of heat-resistant spores in materials. Explaining that in some cases boiling liquids does not kill the bacterial spores which could explain John Needham's findings.
