Concept in Definition ABC

The term biogenesis is a concept that allows to designate that theory according to which every living being comes from another living being; This theory is opposed to the theory of spontaneous generation or abiogenesis.

Biological theory that maintains that living beings come yes or yes from others and not that we are generated from spontaneous and natural matter as was believed for centuries

We must say that this concept is used almost exclusively in the field of biology.

It should be noted that abiogenesis involves the belief that the origin of life is found in inert matter. East thought it predominated in the world of science from the time of the Greek philosophers.

So much so that Aristotle, he argued that animals and plants were generated by spontaneous generation, that is, naturally from living beings in the process of decomposition, either in the mud or in the garbage.

In other words, an active principle is combined with certain substances or natural circumstances and species are created.

The origin of life as well as the subject of death have been issues that aroused and arouse the interest of humanity since the most remote times.

So the great thinkers of antiquity, the philosophers, then the scientists, were concerned preferably of these issues to which they sought to give answers, of course, the development of science and the evolution in this field it allowed little by little to approach more certain conclusions.

Then, until the seventeenth centuryFor more or less twenty centuries, it was believed that life could arise out of matter without life under certain circumstances, which is what we just mentioned as spontaneous generation.

From this moment on, the advancement of science and the performance of various experiments showed that life was not generated from spontaneous way but necessarily implies the existence of a previous mode of life and this began to be called biogenesis.

Meanwhile, this belief of spontaneous generation proliferated more than anything by the observation than worms and mold, for example, which seemed to arise spontaneously, naturally, when organic matter was left exposed.

Some time later, it was revealed that from the aforementioned frequently observed circumstances the Life only appears from another life, then, for many years it was bet on the belief that the organisms Living could arise spontaneously forming from decomposing organic matter.

Substantial change in the conception of the origin of life and the influence of the development of science and elements such as the microscope

In the year 1665, the scientist Franchesco Reide, he kicked off to begin to demonstrate that the belief that had prevailed so far was not the correct one and did so by demonstrating that The worms that were detected in the meat came from the larvae of the flies, which did not appear if the meat was protected, for example using a fine mesh.

And finally, to the mid-19th century, the scientist Louis Pasteur showed that in the air there is a huge amount of microorganisms that are responsible for the decomposition of organic matter.

The invention of microscope it was certainly relevant and key to advance in the forgetting of the idea of ​​spontaneous generation and in the installation of the idea of ​​biogenesis as an explanation of life.

In science there were two camps with clearly different ideas, those who were in favor of spontaneous generation and those who supported biogenesis.

As we indicated, the work of Loius Pasteur was decisive in reaching the conclusion that it is impossible to generate a living being from what does not have life.

Pasteur told the world that the belief of spontaneous generation was a fantasy that had long been believed but was not a fantasy. reality or an explanation of life, while the observations that the microscope allowed to make in a meticulous way allowed to advance in this sense.

Also, the term presents another recurring use, which is the one that designates the process of living things that produces other living things, that is, that living being that lays eggs, what it does is continue to proliferate, reproducing his species.

If this process were not possible, many species would disappear directly from the planet, while the possibility of some species joining, laying eggs and thus producing offspring ensures that the species in question continues to grow and exist in the land.

Topics in Biogenesis