Creatures Born of Mud and Slime: The Wonder and Complexity of Spontaneous Generation

A history and analysis of the theory of spontaneous generation and how scientific thought progresses.

We accept that, at some point in the history of our universe, living creatures emerged from nonliving matter. Yet from the time of Aristotle until the late nineteenth century, many people believed in spontaneous generation, that living creatures sprang into existence from rotting material. As Daryn Lehoux explains in this fascinating book, spontaneous generation was perhaps the last stan...