Name __________________________________________________ Date _________________
Period _______________
Where does life come from?
REDI’S EXPERIMENT
Francesco Redi was born in Italy in 1626. At age 21, he received a medical degree from the
University of Pisa, Italy. From then on, he
worked as a doctor.
Most of the people of Redi’s time
thought living things came spontaneously
from mud, meat, or nonliving matter. A
few scientists, including Redi, thought that
idea was probably not true. He decided to
try find out how maggots appeared in
decaying meat. Many thought the
maggots came from the meat, but Redi thought that the flies laid their eggs on the meat and the
maggots hatched from those eggs.
To test his theory, Redi prepared eight jars. Into each he placed a piece of meat or fish. He then
tightly covered four of the jars with lids and left four uncovered. Drawn by the smell of the meat, flies
buzzed around the jars. After a few days, maggots appeared on the meat in the four uncovered jars.
The meat in the four covered jars had decayed, but there were no maggots.
Next Redi prepared eight more jars for a second experiment. Into each he placed a piece of
meat or fish. He then covered the jars with gauze, which allowed air to move freely in and out of the
jars. He again left four jars uncovered. As before, flies buzzed around the jars, attracted by the smell of
the meat. After a few days the results were the same- maggots could only be found on the meat in the
uncovered jars. This theory that life can only come from life is called biogenesis.
1.
Before the 1700’s, some people believed that life came from mud, meat, or nonliving matter.
What is this theory called? _______________________________________________________
2. What theory did Redi prove? _____________________________________________________
3. What did Redi predict caused the maggots to appear in the meat?________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
4. What did Redi do to test his theory? ____________________________________________ ____
______________________________________________________________________________
5. What was Redi able to conclude with his experiment? __________________________________