Microbes: food and drink Biology B3

Theory of Biogenesis

People used to believe in spontaneous generation theory (idea that life could just appear from non-living material) Evidence has shown this is false. Theory of biogenesis (living things are created from other living organisms) is now accepted today due to these experiments:

1) Lazzaro Spallanzani boiled 2 sets of broth to kill microbes, then sealed 1 flask and left other open. Only open 1 went off, showed microbes got into food by air. However, cynics thought it just meant air from outside the flask was necessary to start the change.

2) Above idea about air outside flask was disproved by Theodor Schwann, 1837…