The term biogenesis is a concept that allows to designate that theory according to which every living being comes from another living being; This theory is opposed to the theory of spontaneous generation or abiogenesis.
Biological theory that maintains that living beings come yes or yes from others and not that we are generated from spontaneous and natural matter as was believed for centuries
We must say that this concept is used almost exclusively in the field of biology.
It should be noted that abiogenesis implies the belief that the origin of life is in inert matter. This thought prevailed in the world of science from the time of the Greek philosophers.
So much so that Aristotle, argued that animals and plants were generated by spontaneous generation, that is, naturally from living beings in the process of decomposition, either in the mud or in the garbage.
In other words, an active principle is combined with certain substances or natural circumstances and species are created.
The origin of life as well as the subject of death have been issues that aroused and arouse the interest of humanity since the most remote times.
Thus it is that the great thinkers of antiquity, philosophers, then scientists, preferentially dealt with these issues to which they sought to give answers, of course, the development of science and evolution in this field allowed little by little to approach conclusions more accurate.
Then, until the seventeenth centuryFor more or less twenty centuries, it was believed that life could arise from lifeless matter under certain circumstances, which is what we just mentioned as spontaneous generation.
From this moment on, the advancement of science and the performance of various experiments showed that life was not generated spontaneously but that it necessarily implies the existence of a previous mode of life and this began to be called biogenesis.
Meanwhile, this belief of spontaneous generation proliferated mainly due to the observation that worms and mold, for example, seemed to arise spontaneously, naturally, when organic matter was left exposed.
Some time later, it was revealed that from the aforementioned frequently observed circumstances life only appears from another life, then, for many years it was bet on the belief that living organisms could arise spontaneously forming from organic matter in decomposition.
Substantial change in the conception of the origin of life and the influence of the development of science and elements such as the microscope
In the year 1665, the scientist Franchesco Reide, gave the initial kick to begin to demonstrate that the belief that had prevailed so far was not the correct one and did so by demonstrating that the worms that were detected in the meat came from the larvae of flies, which did not appear if the meat was protected, for example using a fine mesh.
And finally, to In the middle of the 19th century, the scientist Louis Pasteur showed that in the air there are a huge number of microorganisms that are responsible for the decomposition of organic matter.
The invention of the microscope was certainly relevant and key to advance in the forgetting of the idea of spontaneous generation and in the installation of the idea of biogenesis as an explanation of life.
In science there were two camps with clearly different ideas, those who were in favor of spontaneous generation and those who supported biogenesis.
As we indicated, the work of Loius Pasteur was decisive in reaching the conclusion that from what does not have life it is impossible that a living being is indeed generated.
Pasteur told the world that the belief of spontaneous generation was a fantasy that had been believed for a long time but that it was not a reality or an explanation of life, while the observations that the microscope allowed to make in a detailed way allowed progress in this sense.
Also, the term presents another recurring use, which is the one that designates the process of living things that produces other living things, that is, that living being that lays eggs, what it does is continue to proliferate, reproducing its species.
If this process were not possible, many species would disappear directly from the planet, while the possibility of some species to unite, lay eggs and thus produce offspring guarantees that the species in question continues to grow and exist on earth.
