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330
Aristotle
During 330BC, Aristotle synthesized that "nonliving things are capable of producing life". -
Period: 330 to
Spontaneous Generation
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William Harvey
In 1651, Harvey published a book called "Exercitationes de Generatione Animalium" stating that he believed all life came from eggs. He was one of the first doctors to publicly reject Aristotle's hypothesis. -
Francesco Redi
Redi was an Italian scientist whom created an experiment tp test Aristotle's hypothesis. For his experiment, Redi placed meat in two differents jars, leaving one jar open while the other one closed. Redi wanted to test whether maggots would appear or not. Days later, the open jar contained maggots while the closed one did not. Redi came to the conclusion that it is impossivle for life to be produced by nonlife. -
John Needham & Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de Buffon
Needham, an English biologist, and Buffon, a French Naturalist, met in England and decided that together they would challenge Redi's experiment. For Needham & Buffon's experiment, they placed broth inside of a bottle and then heated it to kill any bacteria inside. After heating the bottle of broth, they sealed it. A few days later, both Needham and Buffon claimed to see life inside the bottle, proceeding to report that life had been "created by nonlife". -
Lazzaro Spallanzani
Spallanzani, an Italian scientist, believed that Needham & Buffon didn't successfully kill all bacteria during the boiling of the broth. For his experiment, Spallanzani took ideas from both Redi's & Needham's. He took two bottles and placed in each other, then boiled both bottles. Just like Redi, he left one open while sealing the other one up. A few days later, Spallanzani reported that the open bottle contained tiny living organisms while the sealed bottle contained zero traces of life. -
Lazzaro Spallanzani
Following his experiment, Spallanzani excluded spontaneous generation as a "viable theory" however other scientists believed believed air was necessary for spontaneous generation. This caused controversary as Spallanzani's open bottle was exposed to air. -
Lorenz Oken
Oken proposed the "sea-slime" theory. He said it occurred where the sea and land meet on the shore. He explaiined that the tiny bladders of foam formed enclosed the three principles of respiration, digestion, and feeding. Confusingly, his theory was not consistent and he frequently contradicted himself. -
Jean Bapiste de Lamarck
Lamarck was a student of Buffon's and in contrast to his mentor, he believed in the spontaneous generation. He believed that an independent event of spontaneous generation produced each species. -
Felix Archimede Pouchet
Pouchet believed that spontaneous generation was a vital force which resulted in a spontaneous act known as sexual generation. -
Louis Pasteur
Pasteur wrote an essay discussing the new light on the spontaneous generation. His wrote his essay as not only did he not believe in the spontaneous generation, but also because the French Academy of Science publicly offered an Alhumbert Prize of 2500 francs. -
Louis Pasteur
The year after writing his essay, Pasteur won, overall refuting Aristotle's hypothesis of spontaneous generation.
