• 1.2: Spontaneous Generation vs. Biogenesis


    • University of Wisconsin-Madison: Timothy Paustian's "The Microbial World: Spontaneous Generation"

      Read this page. The origin of life has always been fascinating, and the discovery of microbes was also followed by a debate on their origins. Prominent scientists of the time performed experiments to prove or disprove the spontaneous generation of microbes from non-living matter. The debate was going on for about 200 years, when finally Pasteur put off the spontaneous generation theory with a set of smartly designed and carefully performed experiments.

    • Seung Yon Rhee's "Louis Pasteur (1822-1895)"

      Read this page. Louis Pasteur was a meticulous experimenter, who believed that hard work should bring results. As Pasteur stated, "Chance favors only the prepared mind."

    • W. H. Freeman's "Pasteur's Experiment"

      Read this review of Pasteur's experimental design for testing spontaneous generation. Pasteur's steps of observing, asking a question, making a hypothesis, conducting an experiment, and then accepting (or rejecting) his hypothesis later became codified as the scientific method.