I don't know if you've thought about the origin of life, but I want to talk about a theory called spontaneous generation. Do you know what it is? What does spontaneous generation consist of?
Darwin thought that the common origin of all species came from inorganic matter and Aristoteles thought in the same way.
It seems stupid. Isn't it? However a lot of people believe in spontaneous generation without knowing what it is. Imagine, there is a dead animal and maggots come out because of decomposition. Where do the maggots come from? Currently a lot of people think that maggots turn up out of nowhere but in fact maggots are insect's larva. Ask to your friends, I guess a lot of them will tell you: Maggots appear from the cadaver! (Spontaneous generation is an ancient theory, 18th century, it was refuted but it is in force in a lot of minds)
There was a scientist called Jan Baptista van Helmont who decided made an experiment: He put dirty clothes and wheat into a barrel and he waited 21 days, the result is evident: mice. Cause of this he thought that that mixture (dirty clothes + wheat) generated mice. Unfortunately, he didn't prevent the access to the barrel so the mice arrived to the barrel and went into it.
The italian scientist Francesco Redi was more clever and he made an experiment with a piece of meat: Eight jars and eight pieces of meat within, four jars were opened and the other four were closed. He realized that flies went into the opened jars and the maggots appeared but it didn't happen at the four closed jars.
The spontaneous generation's defenders said that the cause was the lack of air, so Redi made again the experiment and he used four jars with gauze covering the entrance (the air could pass but the flies couldn't arrive to the meat) Result: no maggots in the meat but the eggs had been deposited on the gauze (Disgusting!)
Louis Pasteur wanted to do his experiment (19 th century), Redi proved that multicellular beings don't appear spontaneously. What about unicellular beings? Pasteur used two jars with special neck (swan neck) so the air could pass but the microorganisms were deposited on the bottom. He put nutritious broth and he boiled it, nothing happened so he decided to cut the neck of one jar so the microorganisms could access to the broth. Result: the broth was decomposed but the broth into the other jar was intact. So the microorganisms (most of them unicellular) don't appear spontaneously.
Therefore: ALL LIVING BEING COMES FROM ANOTHER LIVING BEING.
Nowadays there is a science called abiogenesis (it studies the arising of life from non-living matter) its objective is to know how life was caused in the Earth (it is another doubt that I want to talk about. I can advance that from my point of view: the origin of live in the Earth is exogenous. Yes, my friends, I believe in exogenesis)
I leave the door opened in order to let you think and research onto origin of life (there are a lot of theories about it, including creationism) How do you think life was created?
Another question that comes to my mind right now... Where does inorganic matter come from? Yes... I know... I know... some of you will say: from the Big Ben, the Origen of Universe (Who believes in this theory) but... before? When the Universe just was a chaotic mass?
Oh yes... we are warming up our minds!
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