Lazzaro Spallanzani

Lazzaro Spallanzani was born on 12 January 1729 in Italy and became a Catholic priest, earning the nickname Abbé Spallanzani. He turned his attention to experimental biology and physiology, studying bodily functions, animal reproduction, and echolocation with a rigor uncommon for his era. His work on biogenesis directly challenged spontaneous generation, the reigning theory that living organisms arose from inanimate matter. In 1785 he published Expériences pour servir a l'histoire de la génération des animaux et des plantes, where he laid out experimental demonstrations of fertilisation between ova and spermatozoa and documented in vitro fertilisation. He died on 11 February 1799, seventy years old, having cracked open questions that wouldn't fully close until Pasteur arrived.