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Robert Hooke
Robert Hooke publishes his book "Micrographia" containing detailed diagrams on numerous subjects under the microscope. Robert Hooke is the scientist who coined the term "cell" and used his technical genius to create microscopes that could magnify up to 50x. Robert Hooke first observed the cell of a cork. -
Francesco Redi
Francesco Redi attempts to disprove spontaneous generation. He places a piece of fresh meat into both a sealed and unsealed jar. Noting that maggots only appeared in the unsealed jar, he concludes that spontaneous generation is false since the maggot eggs came from flies within the air. -
Anton van Leeuwenhoek
Leeuwenhoek discovers microbes. Leeuwenhoek also discovers red blood cells and bacteria two years later. Leeuwenhoek creates powerful, handmade microscopes with up to 250x magnification. First to observe cell nuclei. -
John Needham
John Needham attempts to uphold the idea of spontaneous generation with an experiment in which he places gravy broth into a bottle and heats it up to kill any organisms inside. After a few days, he observes that there are living organisms within the gravy. He believes that this was because of a "life force". (It is eventually discovered that there were experimental errors in his experiment.) -
Robert Brown
Robert Brown publishes his research about fertilization in plants and the cell nucleus in a speech and, two years later, a book. Prior, in 1801, Robert Brown travells to Australia to study plants. He uses a microscope to observe milkweed and orchid cells, noting that there is pollen travelling in and out of a small oval within them, which he called the "nucleus". -
Félix Dujardin
Félix Dujardin studies microscopic marine animals along the Mediterranean Coast and discovers rhizopods, now known as protozoans. Dujardin also refutes Christian Gottfried Ehrenburg's theory stating that the organs of microscopic organisms were similar to those of vertebrates. Dujardin goes on to contribute microscopic research on numerous groups of invertebrates such as cnidarians and helminths. -
Matthias Jakob Schleiden
Matthias Schleiden claims that all plant matter is made of cells and that embryonic plants originally developed out of single cells. His claims are based on a series of studies he conducts on plants using a microscope. Schleiden also claims that plant growth is the result of the production of more cells although he does not know how mitosis works. -
Theodor Schwann
Theodor Schwann publishes a monograph containing his theory, claiming that all plant and animal life was made up of the same fundamental unit: the cell. Later, he publishes these ideas in a book titled, Microscopical Researches Into the Accordance in the Structure and Growth of Animals and Plants. Schwann also attempts to disprove spontaneous generation with experiments and develop a theory for where cells originally came from. -
Rudolf Virchow
Rudolf Virchow supports the research done by Robert Remak which provided experimental evidence that new cells were created through cell division. He uses his literary skills to get this idea out to the scientific community and publishes this, along with other research, in a book titled, Cellular Pathology as Based Upon Physiological and Pathological Histology. -
Louis Pasteur
Louis Pasteur disproves spontaneous generation with an experiment in which he boils meat broth inside a flask with a curved, "S" shaped neck which allows air to enter but not microorganisms. He notes that only when the flask is tipped so that the broth comes into contact with the curved portion of the flask does the broth start to grow mold. This provides evidence against spontaneous generation and shows that there are microorganisms in the air. He also develops many antidotes and cures.
