Francesco Redi and Spontaneous Generation

• Francesco Redi, (born Feb. 18, 1626, Arezzo, Italy—died March 1, 1697, Pisa), Italian physician and poet who demonstrated that the presence of maggots in putrefying meat does not result from spontaneous generation but from eggs laid on the meat by flies.
• In 1668, Francesco Redi published the first set of experiments challenging spontaneous generation. In these experiments, he demonstrated that maggots arise from the eggs of flies rather than directly from rotting meat. He did so by taking several jars and placing raw meat inside of them.