Origin of Life - Louis Pasteur
Spontaneous Generation was thought to be the Origin of Life
until the late 1850's. It wasn't until Frenchman Louis
Pasteur that this fallacy was finally disproved. In 1859,
the French Academy of Science sponsored a Science Fair, the
goal being to prove or disprove Spontaneous Generation.
Young Pasteur's award winning experiment was a clever
variation of earlier experiments performed by John Needham
(1713-1781) and Lazzaro Spallanzani (1729-1799). Pasteur
filled a long necked flask with meat broth. He then heated
the glass neck and bent it into an "S" shape. Air could
reach the broth, but gravity acted to trap airborne
microorganisms in the curve of the neck. He then boiled the
broth. After a time, no microorganisms had formed in the
broth. When the flask was tipped so that the broth reached
the microorganisms trapped in the neck, the broth quickly
became cloudy with microscopic life. Thus, Pasteur disproved
Spontaneous Generation. Furthermore, Pasteur proved that
some microorganisms are airborne.
Origin of Life - Origin of Species and Modern Day Science
Class Spontaneous Generation was disproved as the Origin of
Life in 1859. Ironically, it was this same year that Charles
Darwin's Origin of Species was published. From this work
arose the modern evolutionary movement, which is now thought
to have occurred in six phases: (1) Cosmic Evolution (the
origin of space, time, matter and energy from nothing); (2)
Chemical Evolution (the development of the higher elements
from hydrogen); (3) Stellar and Planetary Evolution (the
origin of stars and planets); (4) Organic Evolution (the
origin of organic life from a rock); (5) Macro Evolution
(the origin of major kinds); and (6) Micro Evolution (the
variation within the kinds). Only the sixth phase has been
observed and documented. The first five are merely assumed.
Interestingly, the fourth assumption is the old doctrine of
Spontaneous Generation - organic life developing from
inorganic matter (a rock). The sadly comical result is that
some modern day textbooks devote a chapter to the work of
Francesco Redi and Louis Pasteur, and their success in
disproving Spontaneous Generation. Then, a few chapters
later, school kids are taught that Spontaneous Generation is
the Origin of Life