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600 BCE
First instance of Spontaneous Generation in civilized society
The first Western thinker to suggest the concept of Spontaneous Generation was Anaximander. Anaximander was a Milesian philosopher from what is now Turkey. He suggested that life was created from the elemental nature and arose from the four main elements of Water, Air, Fire and Earth. -
400 BCE
Aristotle's input on Spontaneous Generation
Aristotle stated that the four natural elements were accompanied by a fifth final quintessence that he claimed made every living thing. He claimed that the quintessence is of the cosmos and that the elements and the quintessence were finally accompanied by a 'pneuma' which translates to 'soul' that made up every living organism. -
Recipes for Creating Organisms
By the 15th century, recipes for creating organisms or animals became the norm. Recipes for creating bees, maggots, and frogs were among the recipes for creating animals.
One specific example came from Johannes Baptista van Helmont who stated that mice were created by placing a flask filled with wheat and old rags within a dark warm closet. -
Recipes for Creating Organisms
By the 15th century, recipes for creating organisms or animals were a norm. There were many recipes for creating different animals such as frogs, maggots and even bees. One example comes from thinker Johannes Baptista van Helmont who claimed that mice came from flasks that contained wheat and old rags within dark warm rooms. -
First Challenge to Spontaneous Generation
In 1668, Francisco Redi, challenged the concept of Spontaneous Generation and was successful. He conducted an experiment in which he placed meat within 3 flasks/open jars. The first one was left out for a long time, the second left out for a shorter time, and the third was sealed. The sealed flask showed no signs of maggots while the other two flasks seemed to have spawned maggots. This showed to Redi that maggots were not products of SG but just appearing in the meat from the air. -
Counterargument by Needham
In 1738, John Turberville Needham attempted to prove the occurrence of Spontaneous Generation. He did so by boiling broth (something that kills organisms) and seeing if new organisms appear within the broth afterward. The experiment showed that micro organisms appeared even after boiling, thus to his audience, proving spontaneous generation. -
Rebuttal to Needham
A little after the publication of Needham's experiment, Lazzaro Spallanzani rebutted to Needham's experiment by conducting a similar one of his own. This time, he covered one flask while he boiled it, and had few other flasks which he boiled each longer than the other. The boiled broths all had semblances of microorganisms in them while the sealed one was empty. Needham rebutted by saying that the boiling killed the 'life force'. Spallanzani replied by opening the sealed one livening it. -
Putting SG to Rest
In 1859, the Academy of Science in Paris hosted a competition to gain insight into the topic of Spontaneous Generation. They offered 2.5 thousand francs to the winner. Louis Pasteur won the competition by disproving the theory with an experiment once again using flasks. This time, the flasks had a curved neck, collecting the microorganisms that flew in, not allowing it to touch the subjects. This officially debunked most of the theories about microorganisms spontaneously generating.