[Doctor Stochastic]

The existence of airborne bacteria isn't relevant to the original post.

[Pharmboy]

Please see above. In the future I will be very very careful about linking issues from the history of science to these threads. Very touchy group...

[furball4paws]

"The existence of airborne bacteria isn't relevant to the original post."

Ah, but it is in this respect (BTW PB did a nice job with the history, with one exception noted below).

Sooner or later some Creationoid will pop up to say Pasteur disproved spontaneous generation, so the history is relevant. Some of Pasteur's flasks still exist. I have seen them at the Institute of Pasteur (about the only reason I can think of to go to France). They are still sterile after more than 100 years (sealed ones).

But Pasteur DID NOT DISPROVE SPONTANEOUS GENERATION (exception referred to above), he proved that broths became contaminated because there were microbes in air. Because it's virtually impossible to prove a negative, his experiments have no relevancy to current studies on abiogenesis. But the Creationoids will try to make it sound that way.

Who knows, by the time I post this one may already have shown its ugly head.