Question

How did the experiments of Redi and Pasteur refute the spontaneous generation hypothesis?

Answer 1

The spontaneous generation hypothesis implied on the creation of life spontaneously without any living parents (be it cells of multicellular organisms) which was first thought of when maggots were seen coming from raw meat kept out in the open.

Redo believed that the maggots came from eggs of flies that sat on the open meat. He proved the same by keeping raw meat in the open on which flies could sit freely (control) and simultaneously keeping another piece of raw meat in a closed jar which allowed air to enter but not the flies (experiment/test). Maggots generated in the former case but not in the latter.

Louis Pasteur rules out the possibility of microbial growth in a long standing broth by using a curved neck flask which allOwed air to enter but would trap the microbes at the bends. Hence microbial growth was observed when the broth was kept in an a straight neck flask bUt not in a curved neck one indicating that microbes from the air sit on the broth and multiply.