AP BIOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -Redi placed raw meat inside various jars that were either sealed, open, or covered in a fine cloth mesh. He observed that the sealed container produced no maggots, the open container contained maggots on the meat, and the container covered by mesh produced maggots on the cloth but not on the meat.

Detailed explanation-2: -Redi went on to demonstrate that dead maggots or flies would not generate new flies when placed on rotting meat in a sealed jar, whereas live maggots or flies would. This disproved both the existence of some essential component in once-living organisms, and the necessity of fresh air to generate life.

Detailed explanation-3: -Experimentation by Francesco Redi in the 17th century presented the first significant evidence refuting spontaneous generation by showing that flies must have access to meat for maggots to develop on the meat.

Detailed explanation-4: -Spontaneous generation was a popular notion due to the fact that it seemed to be consistent with observations that a number of animal organisms would apparently arise from nonliving sources. Spontaneous generation was disproved through the performance of several significant scientific experiments.

Detailed explanation-5: -Though correctly concluding that the maggots came from eggs laid on the meat by flies, Redi, surprisingly, still believed that the process of spontaneous generation applied in such cases as gall flies and intestinal worms. Redi is known as a poet chiefly for his Bacco in Toscana (1685; “Bacchus in Tuscany”).