The Bion Experiments
"Bion" is a Greek word meaning "living".
The bion experiments (Oslo, 1936-1939) led Wilhelm Reich into an area which had been hotly debated by scientists for over 200 years: the origin, or "spontaneous generation", of life from non-living matter. A large body of evidence existed which suggested that life could be organized from non-living matter, inorganic substances as well as organic remains of dead plants and animals.
Louis Pasteur had performed experiments in the 1860's which convinced many scientists, particularly the prestigious French Academy of Sciences, that living things can come only from other living things. Still, experiments contradicting Pasteur's interpretation were performed well into the twentieth century, and work on the origin of life is in the forefront of modern biochemical research today.
A major contribution made by Reich, still not widely recognized, was evidence that life is being created in nature all the time, not just billions of years ago in the atmosphere of primitive earth.