Do flies come from red meat?
No.
Although this is common sense to us, in the 15th century scientists believed in the theory of spontaneous generation. Or in other words, scientists believed that living things originated from non-living things.
However, not all scientists believed in this theory. One particular scientist, Francesco Redi, an Italian scientist in the 17th century, was determined to prove the theory wrong. To prove this, he conducted an experiment by placing three identical portions of red meat inside three identical jars. Then for the first jar he closed the lid, the second he sealed the top with a cheese cloth, and he left the last jar unsealed.
After a few weeks, when Redi checked on his experiment, he noticed that the red meat in the third jar was the only jar covered in maggots. On the other hand, there were no flies or maggots in sight in the first jar, and the second jar only had fly eggs on the surface of the cloth (not the red meat). The theory of spontaneous generation was proven invalid by Redi’s experiment. The flies appear to originate from red meat because flies are attracted to food that have been exposed to the air for a long period of time. When the meat in the third jar remained uncovered, the flies felt attracted to the meat and laid their eggs, which eventually grew into maggots.
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