Spontaneous Generation

Paper Summary:

This paper describes the early belief in spontaneous generation, the theory that living things could originate from non-living matter. It then takes a look at the scientific experiments responsible for finally putting this belief to rest. The paper also describes a laboratory experiment, performed by the paper's author, that delivers results, which concur with the previous experiments mentioned.

From the Paper:

"For many centuries people believed that living things could originate from nonliving matter. This belief is known as spontaneous generation, or abiogenesis. It was a commonly held belief in Ancient Rome, during the Middle Ages, and even until the late nineteenth century that spontaneous generation, or the sudden generation of complex life from nonliving matter, existed. (Evers, 1999) Scientists began to question this theory as early as the second half of the seventeenth century, but it was not until almost 200 years later that Louis Pasteur definitively disproved spontaneous generation and changed the course of scientific thought. While it is still debated whether any forms of abiogenesis, or the generation of even simple or microscopic life from nonliving matter, could be possible (Wilkins, 2004), it is certain that spontaneous generation involving complex life forms is not possible."

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