Cell Theory Timeline

  • invention of the microscope

    invention of the microscope
    the invention of the microscope at the beginning of the seventeenth
    century made it possible to take a first glimpse at the previously invisible world of microscopic life
  • Robert Hooke coins the terms "cell"/"pores"

    Robert Hooke coins the terms "cell"/"pores"
    Robert Hooke (1635– 1702), was a English physicist who was also a distinguished microscopist. In 1665 Hooke published Micrographia, the first important work devoted to microscopical observation and he coined the term ‘‘cells”
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    Matthias Jakob Schleiden

    Botanist Matthias Jakob Schleiden (1804–1881) suggested that every structural element of plants is composed of cells or their products
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    Theodor Schwann

    Zoologist Theodor Schwann (1810–1882) stated that “the elementary parts of all tissues are formed of cells” and that “there is one universal principle of development for the elementary parts of organisms... and this principle is in the formation of cells”
  • Robert Brown coined the term "nucleus"

    Robert Brown coined the term "nucleus"
    Scottish botanist Robert Brown (1773– 1858) was the first to recognize the nucleus (a term that he introduced) as an essential constituent of living cells
  • Cell Theory introduced

    Cell Theory introduced
    1839, which was when the cell theory was officially formulated
  • Aphorism omnis cellula e cellula

    Aphorism omnis cellula e cellula
    In the 1850s by Robert Remak (1815–1865), Rudolf Virchow (1821–1902) and Albert Kölliker (1817–1905) who showed that cells are formed through scission of pre-existing cell. Virchow’s aphorism omnis cellula e cellula (every cell from a pre-existing cell) thus became the basis of the theory of tissue formation
  • Organelles were discovered with oil immersion lens

    Organelles were discovered with oil immersion lens
    Oil immersion lens were introduced in 1870. The development of the microtome technique and the use of new fixing methods and dyes greatly improved microscopy. Towards the end of the nineteenth century, the principal organelles that are now considered to be parts of the cell were identified
  • Walther Flemming introduced the term "mitosis"

    Walther Flemming introduced the term "mitosis"
    Walther Flemming (1843–1905), who also introduced the term ‘‘mitosis’’ in 1882 and gave a superb description of its various processes. Flemming observed the longitudinal splitting of salamander chromosomes (a term introduced only in 1888 by Wilhelm Waldeyer, 1836–1921) during metaphase and established that each half chromosome moves to the opposite pole of the mitotic nucleus
  • Carl Benda discovered the mitocondria

    Carl Benda discovered the mitocondria
    The mitochondria was observed by several authors and named by Carl Benda (1857–1933) in 1898