The theory of spontaneous generation was refuted by the work of?

Question: The theory of spontaneous generation was refuted by the work of?

The theory of spontaneous generation was refuted by the work of several scientists, including Francesco Redi, Lazzaro Spallanzani, and Louis Pasteur.

• Francesco Redi (1626-1697) was an Italian physician and biologist. In 1668, he conducted an experiment to test the hypothesis that maggots arise spontaneously from rotting meat. He placed pieces of meat in two jars, one open and one covered with gauze. The open jar soon became infested with maggots, while the covered jar remained maggot-free. Redi concluded that the maggots must have come from flies that laid their eggs on the meat in the open jar.
• Lazzaro Spallanzani (1729-1799) was an Italian biologist and priest. In the 1760s, he repeated Redi's experiment and also conducted his own experiments. He boiled broth in flasks and sealed them tightly. He found that no organisms appeared in the flasks, even after several weeks. Spallanzani concluded that living organisms could not arise spontaneously from non-living matter.
• Louis Pasteur (1822-1895) was a French chemist and microbiologist. In the 1860s, he conducted a series of experiments that definitively disproved the theory of spontaneous generation. He boiled broth in flasks with long, curved necks. The necks of the flasks were then sealed with cotton plugs. After several weeks, no organisms appeared in the flasks. Pasteur concluded that the flasks were kept sterile by the fact that the cotton plugs allowed air to enter the flasks, but prevented bacteria and other microorganisms from entering.

The work of Redi, Spallanzani, and Pasteur led to the acceptance of the germ theory of disease, which states that diseases are caused by microorganisms. This discovery had a profound impact on medicine and public health, and led to the development of vaccines, antibiotics, and other methods for preventing and treating diseases.