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300 BCE
Aristotle
Aristotle invented the field of formal logic. He also found that each germ came from another. -
Zacharias Jansen
Zacharias contracted the compound optical microscope. This contributes to the cell theory by making it easier to view cells. -
Jan Baptist van Helmont
Jan discovered that the mass of the entire plant was far more than the weight of the displaced original pounds of soil. -
Robert Hooke
Robert Hooke had discovered plant cells! Hooke's discovery led to the understanding of cells as the smallest units of life, the foundation of cell theory. -
Anton van Leeuwenhoek
Anton van Leeuwenhoek reported that he had observed "little animals" through a microscope. This proves the cell theory that the microscope shoes tiny things that we normally wouldn't be able to see. -
Lorenz Oken
Lorenz Oken stated "All living organisms originate from and consist of cells" which is the first statement in cell theory. -
Robert Brown
Robert Brown stated that all living organisms are composed of cells, Brown's discovery helped to confirm the second half of the cell theory. -
Theodor Schwann
Theodor Schwann came up with the Theory that all plant and animal tissues are composed of cells. -
Matthias Schleden
Matthias was the cofounder of cell theory, the cell as a basic unit of plant structure. -
Albrecht Von Roeliker
Albrecht discovered the help of powerful microscopes, that the sperm and egg were composed of cells and that humans are formed of cells. -
Rudolf Virchow
Rudolf Virchow came up with the theory that all cells arise from pre-existing cells, which is one of the major points of the cell theory. -
Louis Pasteur
Louis Pasteur proved the theory that cells can only come from preexisting cells. This contributed to the cell theory by disproving spontaneous generation
