• Question: What has been you craziest theory of all your time being a scientist.

    Asked by to Edward, Ian, Mathew, Naomi, sakshisharda on 18 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Naomi Osborne

      Naomi Osborne answered on 18 Jun 2014:

      One of the craziest theories in scientific history is the spontaneous generation theory – before the 1800s, people believed life arose from non-living matter, such as maggots coming from meat spontaneously (instead of from fly eggs). This theory was proved wrong by Louis Pasteur, who showed heated milk didn’t go bad unless you exposed it to air containing microorganisms using swan-necked flasks. This proved that “bad air” caused by rotting flesh was actually down to microorganisms – which were everywhere around us – and microbiology was born.

      http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/history/shp/modern/indrevknowledgerev2.shtml

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