Abiogenesis as a theory for the origin of life has had a long and interesting history… It is said that the more observations a theory can predict is a testament to its strength. Well, since this is the case, it’s no wonder that spontaneous generation was so widely accepted. Ever since the beginning of time, mankind has seen small, unexplainable acts of nature that, unable or unwilling to find the real answer, they needed a theory in order to explain why such happenings occurred. That was where Abiogenesis came in. Why else would hundreds of frogs always appear after a heavy rain?
Or why mice would always tend to turn up wherever rotting hay is to be found? At the time, it seemed that the only answer to such mysteries was Spontaneous Generation. In fact, at the time of the early sixteenth century, mankind had begun making “recipes” on how to create life, so to speak. For example, it was said that if you wrapped sweaty rags around some wheat and then placed it in an open jar, you would create mice within 21 days. Another recipe was throwing garbage into the street and then waiting a day or so until rats would just form from the massive heaps of trash littering the streets.
While at the time, these may have seemed correct, we can take a logical look at these recipes and see that in both of those cases they unknowingly used something that attracted the animal that they were attempting to create; thus creating the illusion that it spontaneously generated from the inorganic materials they used. In any case, this theory became so widely accepted as a fact that when Sir Thomas Browne wrote a book questioning Abiogenesis titled, “Enquiries into Very many Received Tenets and Commonly Presumed Truths”, a man by the name of Alexander Ross verbally attacked Thomas Browne, saying hat “To question this, is to question reason, sense, and experience. ” So, while this first public questioning of Spontaneous Generation raised questions, it did little to affect the firm belief in Spontaneous Generation at that time. In fact, it wasn’t until 1668, when Italian physician Francesco Redi performed an experiment proving that flies did not spontaneously generate from rotting meat that Abiogenesis began to truly be questioned. Redi performed this experiment by getting three jars, each with a chunk of rotting veal inside, and then placing a lid on one, gauze on the other, and leaving the last one open.
The Term Paper on Sigmund Freuds Influence To The Time Of The Lost Generation
Sigmund Freuds influence to the time of the lost generation and its writers. (1) The influence of Freuds theory of psychoanalysis on contemporary writers cannot be underestimated. The beginning of 20th century was signified with decline of Christianity to the degree that it ceased to have any philosophical validity. Philosophers and writers were beginning to suspect that human behavior is ...
He left them untouched for three days and then came back to discover that only the open jar produced maggots, while the other two remained completely devoid of all life. This experiment, though successful, only proved to the world that flies do not come from rotting meat; a good example of how unwilling they were to see the truth that this age-old theory was false. Finally, though, in the early 1860’s, Louis Pasteur helped to display the problems with spontaneous generation through his experiments proving the cell theory correct; that is, that all cellular life must come from a cellular organism.
Not long afterwards, Charles Darwin’s book on evolution and a new theory that at one point an ur-organism must have spontaneously generated once at the very beginning and that all other life spread from this single ancestry through evolution over an immense period of time, added on to Abiogenesis’ failing reputation. With this new evidence, the theory of Abiogenesis at that time was shoved under the rug. Yet, there were still scientists who refused to just throw out spontaneous generation because of the fact that it had to have happened at one point or else how would anything be anywhere?
The Essay on Overview of Galileo’s Life as a Scientist
Galileo Galilei was born near Pisa in February 15' 1564. As he grew up he was taught by Monks and entered into the University of Pisa. In the University of Pisa he studied Mathematics and he got a very high degree. After he graduated, around 1609 when the first telescope was invented he made a telescope of his own which magnified 20 times. Galileo was one of the first people to point his telescope ...
So now the real question was if Spontaneous Generation happened back then, why can’t it happen now? That question was answered by a man named Stanley Miller in the year 1953. He performed an experiment in which he created and sealed away soil, gases that approximated Earth’s early oxygen free atmosphere , and water that scientists believed was a replication of the chemical-rich environment that once covered our earth some 4. 7. billion years or so ago. He then sparked it with an electrical surge, an act meant to simulate lightning, and found that the correct amino acids needed to form life were created.
This discovery was—and sometimes still is—believed to be the proof of the evolutionist’s theory that life may have sprung from nonliving matter. However, it has recently been called into question by scientists because of the fact that there is no way of being sure that Miller’s soil was correctly produced to replicate the soil of that time. This caused dozens or more theories to be created, such as the Ribonucleic acid theory of origin where it’s said that RNA’s formed by chance when various compounds floating around in the prebiotic soup combined.
Shortly after being created, however, it was put down. This was because of the fact that RNA is too fragile to have formed by itself. So, currently, the most acknowledged theory of how life began would be Miller’s version of Spontaneous Generation. This is not only because of the successful experiment on his part, but also because it would explain why Spontaneous Generation is no longer possible. There are many, many more types of life origin theories that are also being looked at as an alternate way of thinking from the more common spontaneous generation.
One of the more widely accepted theories would be the seeding of life through comets and meteorites. This theory states that small microscopic organisms came to our planet riding on comets and icy meteorites that littered our planet millions of years ago and which continue to enter our atmosphere even today. Bacteria on Earth have survived for thousands, maybe even millions of years in frozen soil. It seems possible that they might survive space travel frozen in an icy meteorite.
The Essay on Dissolution Of The Theory Of Spontaneous Generation
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 20 th century, spontaneous generation was known to be an incorrect theory. The reason it was known to be ...
In conclusion, Spontaneous Generation as an explanation for the current creation of any species has been laid to rest by the scientific community. In other words, scientists worldwide accept the cell theory’s premise that currently all cells come from pre-existing cells. Spontaneous Generation as the theory for the beginnings of life on Earth, however, is still a one of the most widely accepted explanations for life’s emergence on our planet Bibliograpy www. wikipedia. org Bruce McCosar Martell-Williams Physics Textbook
