Early Beliefs About the Origin of Life
Abiogenesis/Theory of Spontaneous Generation
Proposed by Aristotle in the 4th century and held its position as the belief on the origin of life until the 17th century.
Evolution
Refers to the change in body structure or behavior to be better suited to survive in a new environment.
Evolutionary Adaptation
Several competing theories surround the dawn of the dinosaurs from super volcanos, asteroid impact, and prehistoric climate change.
Spontaneous Origin
Simple molecules combined to form complex ones
Spallanzani's Experiment
Spallanzani boiled a broth containing meat and vegetables placed in clean glass containers. He concluded that life occurred from something that entered the unsealed flask and that it was the one responsible for life to grow.
Divine Creation
Supernatural power than naturalistic means Creationism
Cellular Respiration
The process by which energy is released by the breakdown of food substances.
Tropism/Response
The reaction of an organisms to stimuli.
Panspermia
A meteor or cosmic dust may significant amounts of organic molecules, which started the evolution of life.
Abiogenesis/Theory of Spontaneous Generation
A theory in the evolution of early life on Earth: organic molecules from inorganic substances.
Nutrients Uptake and Processing
All living organisms need to feed in order to survive, grow, and reproduce.
Responding, Adapting, and Evolving
Certain responsive processes allow organisms to react to changes in their surroundings in a predictable and meaningful way.
Biogenesis
Derived from the reproduction of other life, was presumably preceded by abiogenesis, which became impossible once Earth's atmosphere assumed its present composition.
Creationism
Everything made by a supreme being in a six-day period.
Irritability
External factors or stimuli such as light, sound, temperature, pressure, food source, or presence of chemical substances, affect living things.
Pasteur's Experiment
He boiled sugar solution with yeast in flasks with long neck. Within two days, the solution was teeming with microorganisms because airborne microorganisms easily enter the flask.
Redi's Experiment
His experimental setup involved rejecting spontaneous generation using maggots that arose from decaying meat. After several days, Redi observed the maggots arose from eggs laid by flies on the rotten meat but not on the mat in the covered jar. He concluded that life arose from the living matter such as maggots from the eggs of flies, and not from the spontaneous generation in the meat.
Redi's Experiment
In 1668, the Italian physician Franceso Redi conducted an experiment that challenged of spontaneous generation.
Spallanzani's Experiment
In 1767, the Italian scientists Lazzaro Spallanzani, challenged Needham's Experiment.
Needham's Experiment
In 1975, the English priest John Needham challenged Redi's Experiment.
Nutrition
In plants, performed by absorbing water and minerals form soil and carbon dioxide from the air.
Needham's Experiment
It was common knowledge at that time that boiling can kill microorganisms.
Pasteur's Experiment
It was only in 1861 through Louis Pasteur's experiment that most scientists were convinced that spontaneous generation does not occur.
Energy
Produced when complex organic matter such as carbohydrates and proteins are broken down into simple substances such as glucose and amino acids
Panspermia
Life arose outside the Earth and life forms were transported from another planet to seed life on Earth.
Energy
Lighting, geothermal, electric sparks.
Spontaneous Origin
Miller-Urey experiment suggested that lighting may have helped trigger the creation of the key building blocks of life on Earth during the earliest time periods.
Motility/Locomotion
Most animals can move from one place to another by walking, flying, swimming, gliding, or jumping.
Needham's Experiment
Needham, noticed that broths made from meat were teeming with microorganisms, so he put it to his own test. In Needham's mind, this finding suggested that the lifeless broth had given rise to life. He concluded that life in the broth was caused by spontaneous generation.
Gathering and Using Energy
One unique characteristics of living things is the ability to use energy and materials to ensure survival.
Primordial Soup
Organic broth on Earth's early surface.
Pasteur's Experiment
Pasteur designed an experiment to test the idea that a vital element from air was necessary for life to occur.
Panspermia
Swedish scientist Svante Arrhenius
Irritability
The ability of an organism to respond appropriately to a stimulus.
Energy
The ability of organisms to do work that allows them to move.
Individual Adaptation
The ability to adjust to changes in the environment is a must.
Creationism
The belief that life arose from nothing but the power of divine being.
Biogenesis
The belief that life originates from preexisting life.
Biogenesis
The development of life from preexisting life.
Abiogenesis/Theory of Spontaneous Generation
The idea that life originates from nonliving matter.
Nutrition
The maintenance of the body's internal environment.
Divine Creation
The oldest hypothesis that life came from a divine being is the most widely accepted belief.
Metabolism
The sum of all chemical processes and energy changes happening inside the body of an organisms.
Biogenesis
The synthesis of chemical compounds or structures in the living organism.
Metabolism
These chemical reactions that power organism's life processes and provide them raw materials are performed in sequence and regulated.
Pasteur's Experiment
This experiment supported the theory of biogenesis and rejected spontaneous generation.