Question

Which scientist by experimentation demonstrated that “Life comes only from preexisting life”?

Answer 1

At the end of the seventeenth century, the theory of spontaneous generation was put forward. It claimed that life spontaneously evolved repeatedly from non-living substances.

Complete Answer:
- Biogenesis refers to the mechanism by which a living thing originates from another living thing, namely of the same kind.
- Until, biogenesis was not generally known. The spontaneous generation hypothesis was widely common.
- The spontaneous generation theory notes that living things may be created by inanimate objects. Often this is called abiogenesis. This hypothesis is not generally supported to this day any more.
- Scientific studies such as that of Louis Pasteur showed that living beings could not be spontaneously produced from inanimate objects with the introduction of laboratory instruments and microbial techniques.
- Just living things are able to form another life by being reproduced. Thus, the spontaneous generation hypothesis became outdated and the biogenesis hypothesis became more generally accepted.
- Louis Pasteur was the physicist who conducted ‘Theory of Biogenesis’ to show that life only comes from pre-existing life. He utilized two flasks.
- A fresh piece of meat was put in pre-sterilized flasks, and another flask. Life did not arise from the meat while fresh living species emerged out of killed yeast in another flask exposed to the air.

Note: The ancient atmosphere contained massive concentrations of hydrogen, helium, water vapor, methane, carbon monoxide, and ammonia.