Before the discovery of cells, people believed in the theory of spontaneous generation. According to this theory, living things can come from nonliving things. On the basis of this theory, people believed that maggots that formed on cheese spontaneously arose from the cheese. Which TWO statements disprove this theory of spontaneous generation?
A) All living things are made of cells.
B) All matter is made of cells.
C) Living cells can only come from previously existing matter.
D) Cells form previous existing cells.
E) Cells are generally microscopic and impossible to detect with the naked eye.
The two statements that disprove the theory of spontaneous generation are that A) All living things are made of cells and that D) Living cells can only come from previously existing cells.
The scientist that disproved the spontaneous generation theory was Louis Pasteur, who boiled a culture broth free of microorganisms and let it stand for a long period of time. No organisms grew from the flask, but when Pasteur opened it to the environment the flask soon became full of bacteria. That proved that there were microorganisms that were responsible for the growing of living things and disproved the theory of Spontaneous generation. Have a nice day!
