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Robert Hooke (1665)
Hooke was an English scientist.
He looked at a thin slice of cork (deak oak bark) through a compound light microscope.
He observed tiny, hollow, geometric shapes. He decided to call them "cells," because they reminded him of the rooms monks lived in.
Because the cork cells were dead, he could only observe the outer walls (membranes) of the cells. -
Anton van Leeuwenhoek
Van Leeuwenhoek was a Dutch tradesman and scientist.
He is commonly known as the "Father of Microbiology."
He looked at protists, bacteria and muscle fibers through a simple microscope (1 lens).
He was the first to observe living cells. He called them 'animalcules,' which we now refer to as microorganisms. -
Compound Light Microscope
Anton van Leeuwenhoek perfected the art of making lenses to magnify objects. He made over 200 microscopes before someone else figured out that it wasn't that difficult to create the lenses. Some of his microscopes could magnify up to 500 times. -
Robert Brown
Brown was a Scottish botanist.
While studying orchids under a microscope, he observed the opaque areas in cells which he called the areola or nucleus. -
Theodor Schwann
Schwann was a German physiologist.
He was a co-contributor to The Cell Theory.
He viewed animal parts under a microscope and observed that they were different from plant cells (and later looked at nails, feathers and tooth enamel cells).
During a disccussion with Schleiden, he realized that all living things are composed of cells. This lead to the first and third rule of the Cell Theory. -
Matthias Schleiden
Schleiden was a German botanist.
He was a co-contributor to The Cell Theory.
Studied plants under a microscope and discovered that plants are made up of cells. -
Robert Remak
Remak was a Polish/German physiologist.
He observed cells dividing by staining the membranes of the cells. This was a huge discovery but it went unnoticed. -
Rudolph Virchow
Virchow was a German physician.
He is known as "The Father of Modern Pathology."
He was a co-contributor to The Cell Theory.
He plagiarized the work of Remak and wrote that "every cell originates from another existing cell like it." This became the second part of The Cell Theory.
