Which of the following scientists showed that maggots develop from fly eggs that are laid on decaying meat rather than arising spontaneously.

• A. Lazzaro Spallanzani.
• B. John Tyndall.
• C. John Needham.
• D. Louis Pasteur.
• E. Francesco Redi.

Answer: (E)

Verified step by step guidance

1. Understand the context of the problem: The question is about the historical experiments that disproved the theory of spontaneous generation, which was a widely held belief that life could arise from non-living matter.
2. Identify the key scientist associated with disproving spontaneous generation in the context of maggots and decaying meat: Francesco Redi.
3. Recall Francesco Redi's experiment: He conducted a controlled experiment where he placed meat in two jars, one covered and one uncovered, to observe the development of maggots.
4. Analyze the results of Redi's experiment: Maggots appeared only in the uncovered jar, where flies could lay eggs, demonstrating that maggots came from fly eggs rather than spontaneously generating from the meat.
5. Conclude the significance of Redi's work: His experiment was one of the first to challenge the idea of spontaneous generation, paving the way for future scientific inquiry into the origins of life.