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500 BCE
Anaximander
Milesian philosopher who wrote from 611BC to 547BC He is estimated to be the first western thinker that suggested life rose spontaneously. He thought that life came from the “wet” -
350 BCE
Aristotle
In “History of Aniamls” he explained that living organisms were created from the mixture of “principles” and “elements” and an “animating force” called “pneuma”, which translated to “soul”. -
Francisco Redi’s Experiment
Redi disproved the theory that maggots could spontaneously appear from meat by performing a controlled experiment. He left 4 open jars with meat and 4 jars with meat covered with cloth. Maggots only formed in open jars. -
Pier Antonio Micheli's Experiment
He observed that the same type of fungal spores form when placed on a slice of melon. He suggested that fungi did not arise spontaneously. -
John Needham’s Rebuttal
He disagreed with Reid. He covered a bottle with broth and heated the bottle. Life appeared days later. However, in reality, Needham did not heat the bottle long enough to kill the microbes -
Lazzaro Spallanzani’s Experiment 1768
He suggested that Needham did not completely kill the organisms inside the bottle. To disprove Needham, he sealed one bottle and unsealed one bottle. Life only showed in unsealed bottle. This seemed to disprove spontaneous generation. However, others argued that air was the essential element in spontaneous creation of life, thus life didn’t appear in the sealed bottle. -
Louis Pasteur’s Experiment
Pasteur finally disproved the concept of spontaneous generation. He used a flask that looked like a swan’s neck. The neck prevented airborne foreign materials from entering the flask. No life was observed in this flask for one year This settled the disputes about spontaneous generation.