Cell Theory Webquest

  • 350 BCE

    Aristotle

    Through his study of embryos articulated ideas of generation. He was the first person to believe in spontaneoud generation and make it a theory
  • Zacharias Jansen

    Zacharias invented the compound optical microscope. His invention helped deny the idea of spontaneous generation, because scientists used his microscope to look at cells.
  • Jan Baptist van Helmont

    He was the first person to make an early contribution to understanding photosynthesis. During an experiment, he disproved spontaneous generation.
  • Robert Hooke

    He dicovered cells in a cork, so he untimetly discovered plant cells. This helped disprove spontaneous generation because he started the cell theory.
  • Anton van Leeuwenhoek

    He discovered the existence of single-celled organisms. His discovery help deny the idea of spontaneous generation.
  • Lorenz Oken

    Lorenz stated that "all living things are made of and consist of cells". This later help deny spontaneous generation even though he believed in it himself.
  • Robert Brown

    He discovered the Nucleus in cells which contributed. It helped further spontaneous generation because it's a part of the cell theory,
  • Matthias Schleiden

    He concluded that all plants are made of cells. He helped disprove spontaneous generation by proving that heat destroys "infuoria" needed for putrefaction
  • Theodor Schwann

    Theodor Schwann contributed to the cell theory concluded that all tissues are made up of cells, forming the beginning of the cell theory. He helped denied spontaneous generation after holding an experiment where he killed all microbes in the air and no more could be formed.
  • Albrecht von Roelliker

    He discovered that sperm and eggs are also cells. This obviously helped disprove the spontaneous generation because, it was already disproven and its more about living things made up of cells.
  • Carl Heinrich Braun

    Braun reworked the cell theory, stating "cells are the basic unit of life" This helped disprove spontaneous generation.
  • Rudolf Virchow

    Rudolf discovered that all cells come from pre-existing cells. This piece of evidence might be one of the several things that completely disproved spontaneous generation.
  • Louis Pasteur

    He contributed to cell theory because he disproved spontaneous generation. He proved that all cells come from preexisting cells. After an experiment from heating liquids.