John Needham was a biologist most known for being a strong advocate of the theory of spontaneous generation. He did experiments to attempt to prove that living organisms could spontaneously generated from nonliving matter.
Early Life of John Needham
John Needham was born in London in 1713. He was a Roman Catholic priest though his main role was of that as a teacher. He taught in several schools throughout his career before becoming the director of the Brussels Academy. Needham conducted experiments and was a strong advocate for the theory of spontaneous generation. He Died in 1781.
Needham Experiments
In 1745 Needham conducted experiments to prove that living organisms could spontaneously generate from nonliving matter. To conduct his experiments he boiled broth that contained animal and plant matter. He concluded that boiling would kill any organisms that were living in broth. After boiling the broth he sealed it in a flask and let it sit for three days. After the three days he observed that the broth was cloudy and he used a microscope and found that there were tiny organisms living in the broth. He suggested that since the boiling killed all organisms, and the flask was sealed, these organisms spontaneously generated from nonliving matter.
Spontaneous Generation Critics
The theory of spontaneous generation that Needham advocated for in his experiments were later contradicted by other researchers. Italian researcher Lazzaro Spallanzani conducted an experiment very similar to Needham’s which contradicted his conclusions.
A french chemist by the name of Louis Pasteur also conducted research that disproved of Needham’s findings. Pasteur’s experiment is regarded as the one that finally expelled the idea of spontaneous generation from scientific thought.
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spontaneous_generation#Pasteur_and_Tyndall
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Needham
https://study.com/academy/lesson/john-needham-biography-experiments-cell-theory.html