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322 BCE
Aristotle
The theory of Spontaneous Generation was first comprehensively proposed by him, an ancient Greek philosopher, in his book ”On the Generation of Animals”. This theory wanted to explain where life comes from and the seemingly sudden appearance of living organisms such as rats, scorpions or maggots. -
Francesco Redi
Was a Tuscan naturalist, physician, and poet. He carried out numerous investigations on various worms (making him considered the father of helminthology), parasitic animals and snake venom. -
Redi's Experiment
He made “The Redi’s experiment, that consist in put meat in three different jars. One without covering it with anything. Other with a stopper, and the last one covered with a cloth. Finally, he proved that insects are not born by spontaneous generation. -
John Needham
Was an English biologist and Roman Catholic priest. He was a defender of the theory of spontaneous generation. -
Needham's Experiment
He carried out an experiment that consisted of boiling a broth made with vegetable or animal matter, seeking to kill any existing microbes, and then sealing the container. A few days later, he found that the broth was cloudy. And he observed that one drop of it contained hundreds of microscopic lives. -
Spallanzani's Experiment
Disagreeing with Needham’s conclusions Lazzaro Spallanzani carried out hundreds of experiments involving heated broth. He poured the broth into flasks, sealed them and heated them for long enough until there weren’t any microorganisms left. After some time the flasks didn’t have any microorganisms left but once Spallanzani opened them they rapidly grew in the flasks. With that in mind Spallanzani concluded that spontaneous generation was false and microorganisms came from the contaminated air. -
Lazzaro Spallanzani
Was an Italian catholic priest, biologist and physiologist that made important studies of bodily functions, animal reproduction, and animal echolocation. He started to study law in the University of Bologna where he studied law at his father’s request but quickly turned to science, specifically natural philosophy and mathematics. -
Louis Pasteur
Was a French chemist and microbiologist renowned for his discoveries of the principles of vaccination, microbial fermentation, and pasteurization, the last of which was named after him. -
Pasteur's Experiment
He used 2 swan neck flasks and in each of them he put equal amounts of meat broth, boiled them to eliminate possible microorganisms present in the broth. After a while he looked and the result was that not one of them presented the presence of life. With this he has shown that organisms do not come from spontaneous generation theory.