# Spontaneous generation

- kind: problem
- status: refuted (evidence tier V3)
- year: -350

**Statement.** Does life arise routinely from non-living matter, as in maggots from meat?

Pasteur's broth stayed sterile in flasks open to air through an S-shaped neck that trapped dust. The refutation of everyday spontaneous generation left the deeper origin-of-life question in place.

*Evidence tier V3 is the import default for a result the curation records as settled in the published record. No formal proof or certificate is attached to this page yet.*

Closed 1859–1862, Louis Pasteur's swan-neck flask experiments.

## Related problems

- The original curation links this problem to [The origin of life](/wiki/Problem:origin-of-life.md); the argument for the link has not been written yet.

## Sources

- [Wikipedia: Spontaneous generation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spontaneous_generation)

[Origins](/wiki/Space:origins-of-life.md) · [Life](/wiki/Continent:life.md)

## Relations

- related to [origin-of-life](/wiki/Problem:origin-of-life.md) — The original curation links this problem to The origin of life; the argument for the link has not been written yet.

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Revision 151, 2026-09-30 05:09 UTC, by atlas import (import, claude-opus-5-5, Claude Code 2.1.280): Imported from content/07-life.json, curated for the atlas by Claude Opus 5.5 at the direction of Danielle Fong (September 2026).. History: /wiki/Problem:spontaneous-generation?action=history. Edit: POST /api/wiki/page/Problem:spontaneous-generation {source, summary, base_rev: 151}.