AP BIOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -The Greek philosopher Aristotle (384–322 BC) was one of the earliest recorded scholars to articulate the theory of spontaneous generation, the notion that life can arise from nonliving matter. Aristotle proposed that life arose from nonliving material if the material contained pneuma (“vital heat”).

Detailed explanation-2: -The term equivocal generation, also called heterogenesis, describes the theory of spontaneous generation. According to equivocal generation, one life arises from another unrelated life form.

Detailed explanation-3: -The theory of spontaneous generation, first comprehensively posited by Aristotle in his book ”On the Generation of Animals” around 350 B.C., aims to explain the seemingly sudden emergence of organisms such as rats, flies and maggots within rotting meat and other decomposable items.

Detailed explanation-4: -spontaneous generation, the hypothetical process by which living organisms develop from nonliving matter; also, the archaic theory that utilized this process to explain the origin of life.

Detailed explanation-5: -Louis Pasteur’s 1859 experiment is widely seen as having settled the question of spontaneous generation. He boiled a meat broth in a swan neck flask; the bend in the neck of the flask prevented falling particles from reaching the broth, while still allowing the free flow of air.