PHYSICS 20E Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Chromosome, Y Chromosome, Oscar Hertwig
Document Summary
Spontaneous generation - ancient idea about the origin of life from nonliving matter. First written down in aristotle"s history of animals. Idea: animals are spontaneously generated from putrefying earth of vegetable matter. The idea remained common in the renaissance. Spontaneous generation persisted and was taken seriously well into the 19th century. Famous experiment by felix pouchet in favor of spontaneous generation: Louis pasteur did a famous experiment in 1859 that disproved spontaneous generation: Two samples of broth, one boiled one not, put into special flasks with a long neck to admit air but not airborne yeasts. The broiled broth did not until he broke the neck off, so yeast could find its way in there. The invention of the microscope was a key technological advance in the study of life. Leeuwenhoek built the best microscopes to study the animal world. Allowed the study of small details in tiny animals and plants.
