The eldest of nine brothers, Francesco Redi was born in Arezzo, Italy on February 18, 1626. He studied in Florence at the Jesuits’s cools and took a degree in medicine in Pisa in 1647. From 1657 to 1667 he was a member of the Accademia del Cim ento (Academy of the Experiment).
In 1666, Grand Duke Ferdinando II appointed Redi as his “First Physician” and director of the Grand-ducal Pharmacy.
Then in 1670, was appointed to the honor of Grand Duke. Throughout his early life he gained the knowledge necessary to perform the experiments that would change the science world. In 1668, Francesco Redi made the first attack against the idea of spontaneous generation by publishing the book “Experiments On The Generation of Insects.” This book soon became a landmark in the history of modern science. In this book he disproved the theory of insects’s spontaneous generation by means of an epoch-making experiment, which introduced a new method of scientific research into science. At the time, it was widely believed that maggots arose spontaneously in rotting meat. Redi believed that maggots developed by eggs laid by flies.
To test his hypothesis, he set out meat in eight jars, four of which were left open to the air, and the other four sealed. The outcome was unmistakable. The first four jars, which were open to air, flies had laid their eggs, which generated maggots that later became flies. The meat in the sealed jars, on the contrary, decomposed but did not generate any living organisms. This was one of the first experiments in which controlled variables were used. In spite of his well-executed experiment, the belief of spontaneous generation still remained strong, and even Redi continued to believe it under some circumstances.
The Essay on Connecting Stanford Prison Experiment and Lord of the Flies
But look out the evil is in all of us” stated William Golding in his novel Lord of the Flies. This quote means; watch out, because even the sweetest have evil on the inside. Golding’s novel and the Stanford Prison Experiment conducted by Philip Zimbardo, both show a very disturbing transformation of young men. Evil became trapped inside the young boys of Golding’s novel, and the young men in the ...
With the invention of the microscope only enhancing this belief. Even though Redi’s experiment was a breakthrough in science, it wasn’t until 1859 that the theory of spontaneous generation was put to rest. .
