Page 298 - The Miracle in the Cell Membrane

The Miracle in the Cell Membrane

accepted. It was commonly believed that insects came
into being from food leftovers, and mice from wheat.
Interesting experiments were conducted to prove this
theory. Some wheat was placed on a dirty piece of cloth,
and it was believed that mice would originate from it
after a while.
Similarly, maggots developing in rotting meat was
assumed to be evidence of spontaneous generation.
However, it was later understood that worms did not
appear on meat spontaneously, but were carried there
by flies in the form of larvae, invisible to the naked eye.
Even when Darwin wrote The Origin of Species, the
belief that bacteria could come into existence from non-
living matter was widely accepted in the world of sci-
ence.
However, five years after the publication of
Darwin's book, Louis Pasteur announced his results
after long studies and experiments, that disproved
spontaneous generation, a cornerstone of Darwin's the-
ory. In his triumphal lecture at the Sorbonne in 1864,
Pasteur said: "Never will the doctrine of spontaneous
generation recover from the mortal blow struck by this
simple experiment." 97
For a long time, advocates of the theory of evolution
resisted these findings. However, as the development of
science unraveled the complex structure of the cell of a
living being, the idea that life could come into being coin-
cidentally faced an even greater impasse.

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