NATS 1660 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Francesco Redi, Louis Pasteur, Spontaneous Generation
4 Dec 2015
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Ancient greeks believed in the spontaneous generation, the origin of life from non life. Spontaneous generation not critically tested until the renaissance 1668 conducted by francesco redi but he failed to control for air exposure. 1859 experiments by louis pasteur supported redi"s findings. Living organisms do not arise spontaneously from non. Even unicellular organisms grow (=increase in cell volume) New traits happen to be favorable for survival and reproduction. By retaining favorable traits, living species evolve over time, (=adaptions) may arise from random but can be passed on becoming more adapted to their environment. Positive view of science: about reality and what is practical. Negative: about facts, memorization and mechanical processes. 2: - empiricism= careful measurement and observation e. g: random sampling. Discovery science stronger focus on describing but still with the goal of explaining. If extensively tested and supported by results, it is considered a theory. Imperfect, not real, an illusion: ideal world. Scale/ladder of nature= ordering species from most.
