✗ The myth everyone repeats
Small animals and microorganisms can arise spontaneously from inanimate matter like hay, meat, or mud without any parent organisms.
✓ What is actually true
The spontaneous generation hypothesis was definitively disproven by experiments in the 1860s, particularly Pasteur's flask experiments which showed that microorganisms only appear when exposed to existing microorganisms. The principle 'omne vivum ex vivo' (all life from life) became a cornerstone of modern biology.
Reception
The receipts 2 sources