Spontaneous

Generation
By: Regina Alvarez, Patricio Isassi & Fernando Garcia

A01194174, A01194128, A01194533

What the theory states

It was once believed that life could come from nonliving
things, such as mice from corn, flies from bovine
manure, maggots from rotting meat, and fish from the
mud of previously dry lakes.
Spontaneous generation is the incorrect hypothesis that
nonliving things are capable of producing life. Several
experiments have been conducted to disprove
spontaneous generation; a few of them are covered in
the sections that follow.

What evidence is the theory based on

Spontaneous generation
theory is considered
obsolete, regarding origin of
life from inanimate matter,
this process was a
commonplace and everyday
occurrence.
The theory was synthesized
by Aristotle, who compiled
and expanded the work of
prior natural philosophers
and various ancient
explanations of the
appearance of organisms

Who proposed the theory

The theory was
synthesized by Aristotle,
who compiled and
expanded the work of
prior natural philosophers
and the various ancient
explanations of the
appearance of organisms;
it held sway for two
millennia.

Disapproval of Aristotles theory

Aristotles theory was generally accepted, until it
had been ultimately disproven in the 19th Century
by the experiments of Louis Pasteur.
Louis Pasteur designed an experiment to test
whether sterile nutrient broth could
spontaneously generate microbial life. To do this,
he set up two experiments. In both, Pasteur
added nutrient broth to flasks, bent the necks of
the flasks into S shapes, and then boiled the broth
to kill any existing microbes.
In Experiment 2, dust particles remained near the
tip of the swan necks, but could not travel against
gravity into the flasks, keeping the nutrient broth
sterile.
Thus, the Louis Pasteur experiment refuted the
notion of spontaneous generation.

APA
Spontaneous Generation Origin of Life Introduction.
(n.d.). Retrieved August 19,
2014.http://www.infoplease.com/cig/biology/spontane
ous-generation.html#ixzz3AkVErK9L

Top 10 Theories on Beginning of Life on Earth. (n.d.).

Retrieved August 19,
2014.http://www.smashinglists.com/top-10-theorieson-beginning-of-life-on-earth/
Louis Pasteur Experiment: Refute Spontaneous
Generation. (n.d.). Retrieved August 19, 2014.
http://www.pasteurbrewing.com/the-life-and-work-oflouis-pasteur/experiments/louis-pasteurs-experimentto-refute-spontaneous-generation/204.html