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Jan 12, 1580
Jean-Baptiste van Helmont (father of pneumatic chem.)
(12 January 1580 – 30 December 1644) supported ABIOGENISIS
performed an experiment to determine where plants get their mass form; planted a willow tree, measured the amount of soil, weight of tree & the water he added, After 5 years, the tree weighed 164 lbs but he noticed that the amount of soil was the same as in the start of the experiment & concluded that the tree's weight gain had come form water. -
Francesco Redi (supported BIOGENESIS)
(February 18, 1626 - march 1, 1697) first scientist to cahllenge the theory of spontaneous generation. One of his major experiments was when he put chunks of meat in covered and uncovered jars. After several days he noticed that there were maggots/fies in jars that were uncovered but the other jars, which were covered with a fine gauze, had no maggots or flies in it. Becuaes of his experiment he was able to prove that there is no such thing as spontaneous generation. -
Louis Pasteur (supported BIOGENESIS)
27, 1822 - Deptember 28, 1895) Did an experiment so that there was no persistence of germ theory. Took a flask- had a long bending neck-traps dust and other contaminents - boiled beef broth in the flask- but if the neck of the flask was broken, broth reexposes to air-becomes cloudy indiacating microbial contamination.This exp. proved that there was no spontaneous generation, since boiled broth, if never exposed to air, remained sterile.
