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384
Aristotle's theory BC
(384-322 BC) Aristotle believed that every living thing was a mix between 4 elements, earth, air, fire, and water. He also later believe in a 5th element, but it had nothing to do with the creation of living creatures. Of course, a living creature wouldn't be complete with out an animating force, known as "pneuma", which roughly translates to "soul". -
Jan 1, 600
Anaximander BC
Anaximader was a was a Milesean Philosipher (611-547 BC) who was probably the first westerner to think of the spontaneous creation of life. However, his workes did not survive, but according to Hippolytus, 3rd century AD, he believed that creatures were first formed in the "wet", and humans used to a be a type of fish. He had numerous pupils. -
Redi's expirement
In 1668, an Italian physician name Francesco Redi performed a truely scientific expirement. His expirement was to disprove the idea that flies came from meat, and would be one of the steps to ultimately disprove Spontaneous Generation. He placed meat in three jars, one he sealed, one he covered in gauz, and one he left open. He concluded that the two pieces of meat that had contact with flies produced maggots, and the meat sealed off only rotted. -
Needham's expirements
John Needham, an accomplished microscopist, set out to become another scientist to disprove Spontaneous generation. In his expirement, he took 5 mediums, boiled them, and sealed one of them. His results concluded that the 4 open supported life, and once the 5th was open, life was found inside. However when repeated, Needham found the sealed medium full of life, and he published these final results, unable to disprove the theory. -
Spallanzini's expirement
Lazzaro Spallanzini disagreed with Needham's conclusion, so he retried the expirement. This time, though, Spallanzini seal 4 of the broths, and leftthe 5th open. He boiled the 4 sealled, each 30 secounds longer than the last one. He figured out that some organisism were more heat resistent than others, but he eventually proved that the 4 sealed had no life. when his theory was rejected, he broke the seals, and soon the broth was teeming with life. -
Pouchet's evidence
Felix Pouchet, The Director of the Natural History Museum in Rouen, began publishing evidence on the existence of spontaneous generation. He claimed that all life originated from eggs, and the eggs from spontaneous generation. He also believe that sexual generation was caused by the same vital force of Spontaneous generation. -
Pastuer's proof
The idea of Spontaneous generation was argued on so much, that the French Academy of Science offered an award for the person who resolve this. Pastuer claimed this award in 1864. He boilled various beakers so they all were purified. Next, he gave each different necks, some had S-shaped necks, and some had straight necks. The straight necks allowed bacteria in, and the flasks with straight necks had organisisms inside in no time. However, the S-shaped necks had no bacteria.
