Which hypothesis suggests that life could arise from nonliving matter?

The hypothesis that suggests life could arise from nonliving matter is known as spontaneous generation. This concept dates back to ancient philosophy and was widely accepted until the 19th century when scientists began to challenge and ultimately disprove it through experimental evidence. Spontaneous generation posited that living organisms could originate from inanimate objects or nonliving substances under certain conditions—examples include the belief that maggots could emerge from decaying flesh or that mice could arise from stored grain.

While this idea was prominent in early science, further research and experiments demonstrated that life comes from pre-existing life, leading to the abandonment of this hypothesis in favor of more accurate explanations for the origin of life. This shift in understanding paved the way for theories that more accurately describe the development of life on Earth.

In contrast, abiogenesis refers to the process by which life arises naturally from nonliving matter in a historical context, typically concerning the origins of life on Earth. It represents the modern scientific understanding that life could originate under specific conditions from simple organic molecules, which differ from the misconceptions associated with spontaneous generation.

Cell theory and evolution, while fundamental to biological sciences, do not address the origin of life from nonliving matter directly. Cell theory focuses on the fundamental unit of life being