Francesco Redi's experiment
In the 16th century, people believed that sometimes living things, or organisms arose from non-living matter. In 1668, however, Francesco Redi conducted an experiment in which 4 jars of the same kind of meat had only 2 jars with gauze covering. This gauze kept flies away from the meat. By the end of the investigation, maggots had appeared in the jars with no gauze covering. How'd he do it?
Step 1: his question
Why do maggots suddenly appear on raw meat? Is it
Step 2: his hypothesis
Flies produce maggots
Step 3: his controlled experiment
controlled variables: jars, type of meat, temperature, and time.
manipulated variables: gauze covering that kept flies away from the meat.
responding variables: whether maggots appeared on the meat.
manipulated variables: gauze covering that kept flies away from the meat.
responding variables: whether maggots appeared on the meat.
Step 4: the analyzing and recording of his results
Redi kept his findings and observations in a scientific journal which showed that maggots only appeared on the meat in jars that were NOT covered with gauze.
Step 5: his conclusion
He used evidence from his experiment that supported his hypothesis: flies produce maggots.