AP BIOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -Louis Pasteur is credited with conclusively disproving the theory of spontaneous generation with his famous swan-neck flask experiment. He subsequently proposed that “life only comes from life.”

Detailed explanation-2: -Pasteur suspected that this was not the case. He disproved spontaneous generation by boiling beef broth in a special flask that deters contamination. When the broth was not exposed to air, it remained sterile and free of microorganisms.

Detailed explanation-3: -“Spontaneous generation” was the idea that living organisms can spring into existence from non-living matter. In the late 19th century, in a showdown between chemist Louis Pasteur and biologist Felix Pouchet put on by the French Academy of Sciences, Pasteur famously came up with an experiment that debunked the theory.

Detailed explanation-4: -By sterilizing cultures and keeping them isolated from the open air, Pasteur found that contamination of the media only occurred upon exposure to the outside environment, showing that some element was needed to give rise to life. In other words, life does not arise spontaneously.