Describe vitalism. Describe what scientists now think about the basis of life and why they rejected the theory of vitalism.

Question

The theory of vitalism has been rejected by present-day scientists. Describe vitalism. Describe what scientists now think about the basis of life and why they rejected the theory of vitalism.

Answer 1

Hi Alyce,

"Vitalism" was a theory that there was some outside force to turn non-living materials into living. Basically, that life requires some sort of "soul".

The theory can be rejected because there is no experimental data that supports it, and there is experimental data that demonstrates amino acids can arise from a "primordial soup" that we expect early earth to have - it's called the Miller–Urey experiment.

If you'd like to chat more about biology, feel free to contact me!