Cell Theory

Jean Baptiste Van Helmont

Oct 22, 1577

Helmont discovered the idea of spontaneous generation. Spontaneous generation is the supposed production of living organisms from nonliving matter.

Zacharias Jansen

Oct 1, 1590

In the 1590's Zacharias Jansen and his father invented the compound microscope by combining to convex lenses.

Robert Hooke

Oct 21, 1665

English physicist Robert Hooke looked at a sliver of cork through a microscope lens and discovered a honey-comblike structure in it. Hooke later called these cells.

Anton Van Leeuwenhoek

Oct 22, 1676

Leeuwenhoek improved the microscope by putting lenses on it in 1670. While observing pond water he discovered single-celled organisms that he called animalcules. He was also one of the first people to observe and discover bacteria

Louis Oken

Oct 22, 1805

Oken stated that all living things are made up of cells.

Robert Brown

Sep 22, 1830

Brown recognized the general occurrence of the nucleus in cells and was the first to recognize the nucleus as an essential constituent of living cells.

Matthias Schleiden

Oct 22, 1838

Schleiden proposed that all plant tissues are composed of cells, and that cells are the basic building blocks in plants.

Theodor Schwann

Oct 22, 1839

Schwann concluded that not olny plants, but animal tissue as well is composed of cells.

Albrect Von Roelliker

Oct 22, 1840

Roelliker discovered that sperm and eggs are also cells.

Rudolf Virchow

Oct 22, 1855

Virchow adds the third part of the cell theory, which says that all living things come from other living things.

Louis Pasteur

Oct 22, 1862

Pasteur came up with a process that prevented milk and wine from going bad and making people sick, which is now called pasturization.

Aristotle

Mar 2, 2022

Aristotle got the idea that genes do exist and that every living thing has their own set of genes, which gave every living thing a parent and a predictable offspring