From the beginning of time it was believed that living things could come from nonliving things. This process was known as spontaneous generation. However, in the middle of the 17th century and then through the next 100 years, this idea was disproved by three important experiments. We now know that a nonliving object or group of objects can not turn into a living organism. Spontaneous generation is impossible in the atmosphere that we have today.

In the early 1600's, people believed that living organisms could evolve from nonliving organisms. They proved this by saying that if a piece of meat was left out uncovered, that maggots would appear in a few days. These worms did not come from anything that they could see, so they assumed they came from the nonliving meat. In 1668, a man named Redi

Spontaneous generation is the idea that a living organism can come from something nonliving. This idea was entirely believed until the mid 1800's. Three important experiments helped to disprove this idea. Due to the work of three men, we now have the knowledge that living things can only come from other living things in our environment.

Pasteur did the third experiment, in 1862. He took Spallanzani's experiment, and the critic's statements, and combined the two. He boiled pond water to kill all the living organisms. He poured that water into two curved neck flasks. He then proceeded to break the neck off of one of the flasks at the base. The flask with the broken neck started to become cloudy in a few days, however, the other flask continued to stay clear. He proved that the microbial organisms could not come from something nonlivi

Some common words found in the essay are:
Generation Disproved, spontaneous generation, boiled pond water, pond water, boiled pond, believed living, pond water kill, nonliving organisms, microbial growths, water kill, meat left, living organism, living organisms,
Approximate Word count = 571
Approximate Pages = 2 (250 words per page double spaced)