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Zacharias Janssen
He created the compound microscope, allowing people to better analyze and understand the complexity of cells. -
Marcello Malpighi
He made detailed studies of plant cells using microscopes along with some other scientists. While these scientists were beginning to understand plant cells, proof of cells in animals wasn't found until much later. because the thin samples needed for viewing with a microscope are more difficult to prepare. He was also the first person to see a cell under a telescope -
Anton van Leeuwenhoek
He was a Dutch fabric merchant and amateur scientist. He looked at blood, rainwater, scrapings from teeth through a simple microscope. He observed living cells and called some of them 'animalcules.' Some of the small 'animalcules' are now called bacteria, which are single-cell organisms. -
Robert Hooke
Hooke was asked by the Royal Society to confirm Anton van Leeuwenhoek's findings on "little animals", and successfully did so. He also discovered cell walls in cork tissue. -
Henri Dutrochet
Dutrochet stated all living things are made up of cells. Dutrochet stated that new cells arise from within old ones; however, this was incorrect. He also found connection between plant and animals cells. -
Robert Brown
Robert Brown first noticed that plant cells all contain a nucleus. -
Felix Dujardin
Dujardin determined from his studies of organisms that many living microorganisms are composed of a single cell. -
Matthias Schleiden
Along with Theodor Schwann, he found that the cell nucleus was very important, and thought that it might be connected with cell division. He concluded that all plant parts were made of cells. -
Theodor Schwann
Along with Matthias Schleiden, he found that the cell nucleus was very important, and thought that it might be connected with cell division. He concluded that all plant parts were made of cells. -
Robert Remack
Remak first discovered that cells originated from the division of pre-existing cells. -
Rudolf Virchow
Rudolf Virchow proposed an important extension of cell theory that "All living cells arise from pre-existing cells". ("Omnis cellula e celula"). He also discovered that cells divide to form other cells cells. (He had taken this idea from Remak) -
Walther Flemming
He stained cells with dye to make them easier to see under the microscope -
Louis Pasteur
He was a French scientist that worked with yeast cells. He demonstrated that microorganisms were not able to rise from completely non living matter. He was also known for pasteurization by killing micro-organisms by heating liquids at 55 degrees Celsius. -
Janet Plowe
Janet discovered that the cell membrane is a physical structure, not just an interface between two liquids. -
Lynn Margulis
She created the endosymbiotic theory which explains how organelles are placed in a cell. She is best known for her theory on the origin of eukaryotic organelles, and her contributions to the endosymbiotic theory, which is now generally accepted for how certain organelles were formed. She showed that animals, plants, and fungi all originated from protists.
