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Disproval of spontaneous generation
Disproval of spontaneous generation
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Spontaneous generation is the belief that some life forms are created from non-living things. It was an accepted theory to explain the creation of living things since the times of the ancient Romans to the early nineteenth century, when people began to become more skeptical of this idea. By the 20th century, spontaneous generation was known to be an incorrect theory. The reason it was known to be incorrect, primarily, was because of four scientists: Francesco Redi, John Needham, Lazzaro Spallanzani, and Louis Pasteur.
Francesco Redi, in 1668, started the chain of experiments that would all add up to dissolve the theory of spontaneous generation. Redi was able to do this by doing a famous experiment involving meat and flies. He covered a jar of meat so no flies could enter it and, after a few days, there were no flies. This experiment showed that flies were not created from meat. This, in turn, showed to other scientists that “larger” organisms were not created spontaneously. Redi’s experiment was monumental because it was the first time spontaneous generation had been disproved by concrete evidence. Along with that, the experiment’s result was a step for other scientists to build on in the future. Without Redi’s findings, the process of proving spontaneous generation was a false theory could have been delayed drastically.
The next two scientists to make significant impacts on the theory of spontaneous generation were John Needham and Lazzaro Spallanzani.
John Needham was a Scottish clergyman who, from 1745 to 1748, attempted to show that there was a life force in the molecules of all inorganic matter that caused spontaneous generation to occur. He went about doing by doing experiments which showed bacteria would form in soups.
Seventeen years later, Italian biologist Lazzaro Spallanzani tried to disprove Needham’s belief. Spallanzani went about this by doing three experiments. The first experiment was done by boiling soup for an hour, putting it in a flask, and then sealing off the flask. The second experiment involved boiling soup for a few minutes, putting it in a flask, and sealing it of. The third experiment was done by boiling soup for an hour, putting it in a flask, and sealing the flask with a cork that let air in. Out of the three experiments, the first experiment was the only one which led to no bacteria forming. From these experiments, Spallanzani figured that an hour of boiling could kill the bacteria and bacteria came to substances through the air.
There is no greater example of this than the change of thought amongst people regarding Miasma. Until this time it was a long held belief that Miasma (polluted air) was the cause of illness. This shifting in the public’s conviction shows how both science and medicine can impact society. Consequently this shift in knowledge occurred as the result of one of history’s most significant contributions to science, the discovery of fermentation. Rosenberg identifies Pasteur’s discovery as one of the defining elements to the eventual identification and eradication of cholera. Rosenberg plainly outlines the changes occurring in the field of science and from his writing it could be assumed that this was also the first introduction to the ontological theory of disease (external source of illness). Pasteur’s fermentation experiments were occurring at the same time as the Cholera epidemic and his results showed that spontaneous generation was not to blame but instead a microscopic bacteria. Fungi as a source of illness among plants, animals, and humans was already widely accepted, as a result the causation of disease took a change of course and the foundation of Germ Theory was
The next theory that he disproved was the “Primordial Soup Theory”. Sir Fred Hoyle scoffed at the ridiculous atheistic notion when he said, “The notion that a living cell could be arrived at by chance in a primordial organic soup here on earth is evidently nonsense of a high order.” “There was no primeval soup, neither on this planet, nor on any other, and if the beginning of life were not random, life must therefore have been the product of purposeful intelligence” (Donyes
Inconsistencies in this lab could have caused variations in data collecting. Collecting data from one petri dish was challenging because something could have been different on other petri dishes if this experiment was tested on several petri dishes. This could have been different because the other petri dishes could have had more micro-organisms in Section 2 instead of Section 1, or no bacteria could have grown at all in every section of the petri dish.- Second, nothing grew in section B even though there were no disinfectants in that section. The reason why the bacteria and mold might have grown in sections 1, 2, and 3 was because in the process of making the experiment, the coffee filter papers were touched with glove free hands and were not clean. If this lab was run again, some changes would be to wear rubber gloves, do not pour the hand sanitizers on the coffee filter paper but just pour one pump straight into the petri dish, have more than one petri dish to collect data off of, and check when the last time someone cleaned the door knob
This theory was developed from the combined efforts of many different researchers. Together, Konstantin Mereschkowsky, Boris Mikhaylovich Kozo-Polyansky, Ivan Wallin, and Lynn Margulis are the main researchers whom coined the term “symbiogenesis” referring to the long term, or permanent physical association between “differently named partners” (taxa), or the genesis of new species through the merging of two or more existing species (Margulis). Endosymbiosis and symbiogenesis define hypothetical theories thought to justify the origin of species in addition to the processes of natural selection and random mutation. B.M. Kozo-Polyansky and Lynn Margulis, who very much admired Kozo-Polyansky’s work, both believed symbiogenesis was the major source of innovation for evolution (Margulis). The most well known of the first speculations about the origin of organelles, was Mereschkowsky. He primarily studied the chloroplast and was the first to suggest they were obtained initially from unicellular organisms that had been “enslaved” as endosymbionts. However, his theory was turned ...
Darwin, Charles, and David Quammen. On the Origin of Species. New York: Sterling, 2008. 349. Print.
The debate among creationists and evolutionists as to the origin of modern life on Earth has pushed increasingly into the limelight over the last several years. Unfortunately, such mainstream coverage has caused many of the related issues to become skewed and misinterpreted. In the article “Five Major Misconceptions about Evolution,” Mark Isaak attempts to make clear the true nature of evolutionary theory so that, if it must be challenged, such arguments can be made on a purely factual basis rather than, as Isaak says, “against a set of misunderstandings that people are right to consider ludicrous” (“Misconceptions” Para. 1). He presents these misconceptions and his explanation of the faulty logic behind each one in five main categories: “Evolution has never been observed,” “Evolution violates the 2nd law of thermodynamics,” “There are no transitional fossils,” “The theory of evolution says that life originated, and evolution proceeds, by random chance,” and “Evolution is only a theory; it hasn't been proved” (“Misconceptions” Para. 2). In addressing each of these proposed falsehoods individually, Isaak forms an argument with few faults that is clear, precise, and effective.
The origin of the selfish gene, and of evolution itself, began in something Dawkins calls the "primeval soup," where protein molecules, by pure chance, bonded together to form "replicators," the ancestors of DNA (198).
Joseph Priestley and Antoine Lavoisier built the framework for modern chemistry during the enlightenment. Edward Jenner built a vaccine against smallpox, a deadly disease. These sort of scientific successes prompted European thinkers to use reason to find laws to govern the physical world, which they called natural laws. Natural laws are laws that govern human nature.
In 1953, Dr. Francis Crick and James Watson discovered the structure of the DNA molecule. This is the molecule which we now know stores the genetic information for all life. Many scientists have claimed the discovery to be the single most important development in biology during the 20th century. Watson and Crick's investigation into the nature of the genetic code and the passing of information from generation to generation has redefined the study of genetics. Also, it has basically created the science of molecular biology. For their outstanding work, James Watson and Dr. Francis Crick were awarded the 1962 Nobel Prize.
“The greatest mystery of existence is existence itself” (Chopra). Chopra, a world-renowned author, perceives the existence of life as a truly mystifying cerebration. The pending question that many scientist, and even theists, attempt to answer is how life ultimately began. Currently, the mystery is left with two propositions, evolution and creation. While both approaches attempt to answer the origins of life, evolution and creation are two contrasting concepts. Evolution views life to be a process by which organisms diversified from earlier forms whereas creation illustrates that life was created by a supernatural being. Creation and evolution both agree on the existence of microevolution and the resemblance of apes and humans but vary in terms of interpreting the origins of the life through a historical standpoint. A concept known as Faith Vs Fact comprehensively summarizes the tone of this debate, which leads the question of how life began.
Antonie van Leeuwenhoek was a scientist and was best known for his contributions to microbiology; he received the title of "the Father of Microbiology” and dedicated many years of his life to improve the microscope in order to attain incredible heights of precision of the microscopic lenses. He produced magnifications from up to 275X, with a resolving power of up to 1.4 µm. Moreover, he presented his findings from the material of animals and vegetables in extraordinary detail as well as being the first to observe a glimpse of bacteria that he found in water; the first illustration of the bacteria is demonstrated in a representation by Leeuwenhoek in the 1683 “Philosophical Transactions” publication. In this publication, Leeuwenhoek wrote to the Royal Society about his observations of the inside of an old man’s mouth. He found "an unbelievably great company of living animalcules [Latin for ‘little animals’], a-swimming more nimbly than any I had ever seen up to this time. The biggest sort... bent their body into curves in going forwards. . . Moreover, the other animalcules were in such enormous numbers, that all the water... seemed to be alive." These were among the first observations on living bacteria ever recorded.
This hypothesis emerged when scientists found organic molecules in meteorites from the universe. Some investigators wondered if the abiotic production of organic materials in the soil was absolutely basic to the origin of life. Maybe some organic materials from elsewhere in the universe had arrived in the early earth.
Of all the scientists to emerge from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries there is one whose name is known by almost all living people. While most of these do not understand this mans work, everyone knows that his impact on the world is astonishing.
One of the greatest questions of all time is: "Where the heck did we come from?" One of the most popular answers to this question is creationism, the idea that everything was created by a higher being. Another idea is evolution, the idea that all living organisms descended from a less complex organism. Up and coming in the last century, evolution possesses a new way of thinking that is being greatly accepted by the scientific community. Despite this fact many people argue that evolution has no facts to support it and there are several reasons why evolution can't happen.