Francesco Redi disproved the idea of spontaneous generation through an experiment involving _____.

• A. growing bacteria on agar plates
• B. exposing bread to air and observing mold growth
• C. boiling broth in sealed flasks
• D. meat and jars with different coverings

Answer: (D)

Verified step by step guidance

1. Understand the concept of spontaneous generation, which is the idea that living organisms can arise from nonliving matter spontaneously.
2. Recall Francesco Redi's experiment, which was designed to test this idea by using meat placed in jars with different types of coverings.
3. Note that Redi used three conditions: an open jar, a jar covered with gauze, and a completely sealed jar, all containing meat.
4. Observe that maggots appeared only on the meat in the open jar, but not in the sealed or gauze-covered jars, demonstrating that maggots came from flies, not spontaneous generation.
5. Conclude that Redi's experiment disproved spontaneous generation by showing that life (maggots) arises from other life (flies), not from nonliving matter.