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Zacharias Janssen
Janssen was believed to be the first investigator to invent the compound microscope: finished around 1610. This microscope could magnify 9 fold, it rose vertically from a brass tripod almost 2 1/2 in. However, the origin of the microscope is debatable. There is some evidence that his father, Hans Janssen, assisted him with his inventions.
http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/optics/timeline/people/janssen.html
http://www.history-of-the-microscope.org/hans-and-zacharias-jansen-microscope-history.php -
Robert C. Hooke
Hooke had viewed a thin cutting of cork and discovered empty sapces contained by walls and teremed them as pores or cells. Hooke gained credit for discovering the building blocks of life. He publish his book micrographia in 1665 which was an instant best seller.
http://www.science-of-aging.com/timelines/hooke-history-cell-discovery.php -
Anton van Leeuwenhoek
Leeuwenhoek was known to have made 500 "microscopes" which fewer than 10 of them are around today. He was inspired by Hooke's book, micrographia and was the first man to witness, describe, and publish data about live cells, protozoa, amoeba, and bacteria.
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/leeuwenhoek.html -
Theodor Schwann
Schwann discovered Schwann cells in the peripheral nervous system, the study of pepsin, the organic nature of yeast, and the invention of the term metabolism. He also stated that "All living things are composed of cells and cell products". http://www.bookrags.com/biography/theodor-schwann/ -
Matthias Schleiden
Schleiden preferred to study plant structure under the microscope. Schleiden and Theodor Schwann became the first to formulate what was then an informal belief as a principle of biology equal in importance to the atomic theory of chemistry. He also recognized the importance of the cell nucleus.
http://www.bookrags.com/biography/matthias-jacob-schleiden-wsd/
http://www.bookrags.com/biography/matthias-jacob-schleiden-wsd/ -
Rudolf Virchow
Virchow is cited as the first to recognize leukemia cells. He was one of the first to accept and plagiarize the work of Robert Remak who showed that the origins of cells was the division of preexisting cells. http://www.biography.com/people/rudolf-virchow-9519219 -
Louis Pasteur
Pasteur came up with a process to prevent milk and wine from making people sick (Pasteurization) which was based off his work in germ theory. Biogenesis is the basis or Germ Theory which led Pasteur to discover vaccines for Rabies and Anthrax as well as other medical accomplishments. http://www.accessexcellence.org/RC/AB/BC/Louis_Pasteur.php