8-5 Where do organisms come from?
Aim: Where do organisms come from?
OBJECTIVE: Recognize that all life comes from existing life.
Key Term
spontaneous generation (spahn-TAY-nee-uhs jehn-uhr-AY-shuhn): idea that living things come from
nonliving things
Lesson Summary
• Francisco Redi thought that living things could only come from other living things.
• Redi conducted experiments using meat to test his hypothesis. He showed that maggots did not
come from meat.
• Louis Pasteur performed an experiment that disproved the idea of spontaneous generation.
OBJECTIVE: Recognize that all life comes from existing life.
Key Term
spontaneous generation (spahn-TAY-nee-uhs jehn-uhr-AY-shuhn): idea that living things come from
nonliving things
Lesson Summary
• Francisco Redi thought that living things could only come from other living things.
• Redi conducted experiments using meat to test his hypothesis. He showed that maggots did not
come from meat.
• Louis Pasteur performed an experiment that disproved the idea of spontaneous generation.