These days, biologists believe all living things come from other living things. But for a long time, people believed that life would, from time to time, spontaneously pop into existence more often—and ...

Albert Edelfelt’s painting of Louis Pasteur conducting an experiment in his lab. Credit: Public Domain/Wikimedia Commons “Spontaneous generation” was the idea that living organisms can spring into ...

MR. RAY LANKESTER'S letter in last week's NATURE affords fresh evidence of his lack of acquaintance with the several stages through which the “spontaneous generation” controversy has passed, or he ...

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