The experiments of Francesco Redi and Louis Pasteur were pivotal in debunking the theory of spontaneous generation. In the 17th century, Redi conducted experiments with meat and maggots, demonstrating that maggots only appeared on meat exposed to flies, thereby suggesting that life does not spontaneously arise from decaying matter. In the 19th century, Pasteur further reinforced this idea with his swan-neck flask experiment, which showed that sterilized broth remained free of microbial life unless exposed to air, thus proving that microorganisms come from existing microbes rather than spontaneously forming. Together, their work laid the foundation for modern microbiology and the understanding of biogenesis.
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