Francesco Redi

You don't need to be Editor-In-Chief to add or edit content to WikiDoc. You can begin to add to or edit text on this WikiDoc page by clicking on the edit button at the top of this page. Next enter or edit the information that you would like to appear here. Once you are done editing, scroll down and click the Save page button at the bottom of the page.

Francesco Redi (February 18/19, 1626–March 1, 1697) was an Italian physician.

Born in Arezzo, Tuscany, to a family of nobility, he is most well-known for his experiment in 1668 which is regarded as one of the first steps in refuting "spontaneous generation" - a theory also known as Aristotelian abiogenesis. At the time, prevailing wisdom was that maggots formed naturally from rotting meat. In the experiment, Redi took eight jars, which he divided in two groups of four: in the first jar of each group, he put an unknown object; in the second, a dead fish; in the last, raw chunk of veal. Redi took the first group of three jars, and covered the tops with fine gauze so that only air can get into it. He left the other group of jars open. After several days, he saw maggots appear on the objects in the open jars, on which flies had been able to land, but not in the gauze-covered jars.

He continued his experiments by capturing the maggots and waiting for them to metamorphose, which they did, becoming common flies. Also, when dead flies or maggots were put in sealed jars with dead animals or veal, no maggots appeared, but when the same thing was done with living flies, maggots did appear.

Redi was also a poet, his best known work being Bacchus in Tuscany.

A crater on Mars was named in his honor.

External links

• Francesco Redi entry in the Catholic Encyclopedia
• Esperienze intornode:Francesco Redifr:Francesco Redi

ko:프란체스코 레디 it:Francesco Redi nl:Francesco Redi no:Francesco Redisv:Francesco Redi zh-yue:雷迪