Spontaneous Generation Essay, Research Paper

Spontaneous generation, the generation of living from nonliving matter, was an accepted

explanation which explained that under the proper conditions of temperature, time, place,

etc., decaying matter simply turns into organic life. This idea dominated scientific thinking

until 1846 when Louis Pasteur completely shattered the theory by his experiments. Under

controlled laboratory conditions, Pasteur proved that no organic life can emerge from

decaying, nonliving mater. The previous notion has not been demonstrated in the test tube

and no present process has been observed that could support the idea of spontaneous

generation.

The American Scientist magazine, January, 1955, stated, From the probability

standpoint, the ordering of the present environment into a single amino acid molecule

would be utterly improbable in all time and space available for the origin of terrestrial life.

The chance for a proper combination of molecules into amino acids, and then into proteins

with the properties of life is entirely unrealistic. Life cannot be created from non-life.

One experiement that disputes the spontaneous generation theory is that when air

particles are exposed to food such as bread or broth and then are left sitting for a few

days, they become filled with living microorganisms. These organisms come from a

biological cause, not a generational development. The mice that came out of the rags in

the barn was an example of a psychological explanation for reproduction and could not be

explained in any other logical way according to the people of the 1600-1700 s.