Francesco redi took twelve jars and placed meat in all of the jars. he left four open, four covered with gauze and four were completely sealed. maggots developed in the open jars but did not develop in the other eight jars. experimental design francesco redi disproved i , the belief that living cells can arise from non-living material. unfortunately, this experiment did not change the scientific minds of his day. in 1859, ii finally disproved this theory with his experiment involving s-shaped flasks.