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Robert Hooke
Discovered cells when he was looking at a thin slice of cork under a microscope. Hooke was looking at the piece of cork under a microscope of a magnification of 50x and noticed the empty spaces inside of little walls; he named them pores, or cells. He was the first scientist credited with discovering and finding cells. -
Anton Van Leeuwenhoek
Leeuwenhoek discovered the existence of single-celled organisms and he refined the microscope so he could look closer than 50x magnifications; he invented the 270x magnification. He discovered the single-celled organisms when he was looking at pond water under his microscope and found little protists swimming around. This effected the cell theory because it discredited the theory of spontaneous generations. -
Robert Brown
Robert Brown is credited with discovering and accurately describing the nucleus of a cell. He discovered the nucleus during a study of the epidermis of orchards, under a microscope. He noticed the opaque spots in the cells and named them nuclei. His model of the cell was better than the previous ones because he added the nucleus to the model. -
Matthias Schleiden
Schleiden was the first botanist to state that the different parts of a plant organism are composed of cells and parts of cells. He studied and make conclusions from his studies by using the microscope and looking at plant structures under it. He also was one of the first botanist to understand the importance of the nucleus in cells and understood the role it played when it came to cell division. He said all plants were composed of cells before Schwann said that all animals were made of cells. -
Theodor Schwann
Schwann contributed to the cell theory by adding on to the anatomy of the cell and told how cells grow. He proposed that adult tissues made of cells came from early embryos. He also came up with the term "metabolism". He came up with his theories by looking at the studies of other scientists(worked with Schleidan) and coming up with his own conclusions. He added on to the cell theory because he added a nucleus to animal cells. -
Rudolf Virchow
Virchow proposed the idea that cells come from other cells. He was looking under a microscope and witnessed a cell-division. He also was the first to state that diseases and pathogens spread through cells because of cell division. His model did not disprove the previous model, he just elaborated on and proved the previous model more.
