ETYM Greek bio life + genesis birth.
(Irregular plural: biogeneses).
The production of living organisms from other living organisms; SYN. biogeny.
Theory that life derives only from living matter.
Biological term coined 1870 by English scientist Thomas Henry Huxley to express the hypothesis that living matter always arises out of other similar forms of living matter. It superseded the opposite idea of spontaneous generation or abiogenesis (that is, that living things may arise out of nonliving matter).
Theory that all life is derived from living matter alone.