Francesco Redi, Experimental Biologist [Micro-post #5]

Belief unconfirmed by experiment is vain. - Francesco Redi

While typing in Reddit this morning to look something up, I accidentally stopped and hit Enter before I was finished. This led me down a rabbit hole on an Italian polymath named Francesco Redi, who is often referred to as the key figure behind both experimental biology and modern parasitology.

I had never heard of him before but his biggest contribution to science is discrediting the long-held belief of spontaneous generation by showing that it's flies that make maggots and not rotting meat. It should be noted that this was a Big Freaking Deal back then.

So: Francesco Redi, relatively cool scientist who also wrote poetry about wine.

• Wikipedia entry on Redi

• Simple explanation of his experiment with maggots (Memorial University of Newfoundland)

• "True Science, Fake History" by Jacob Roberts (Distillations Magazine) - short article about Redi's other experiments and shenanigans

Portrait of Redi by Jacob Ferdinand Voet