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Hans and Zacharias Janssen
In 1595, Hans Janssen, the father of Zacharias Janssen is said to have played an important role in the creation of the compound microscope. However Zacharias, a Dutch spectacle-maker from Middelburg, has been credited with inventing the first microscope. -
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The Development of the Cell Theory
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Robert Hooke
The cell was first discovered and named by Robert Hooke in 1665. He remarked that it looked strangely similar to small rooms which monks inhabited, thus deriving the name. However what Hooke actually saw was the dead cell walls of plant cells (cork) as it appeared under the microscope. -
Anton van Leeuwenhoek
Anton van Leeuwenhoek ground his own lenses and made his own microscopes through which he observed many microscopic organisms from a variety of sources, including pond water in 1670. His descriptions at the time were so precisie that modern microbiologists can now identify many of the microorganisms he saw. He was the first person to observe Volvox, a colony of algal cells. -
Robert Brown
In 1833, Robert Brown, an English botanist, discovered the nucleus in plant cells. -
Matthias Jakob Schleiden
Matthias Jakob Schleiden, a German botanist, proposes that all plant tissues are composed of cells, and that cells are the basic building blocks of all plants. This statement was the first generalized statement about cells. -
Theodor Schwann
Theodor Schwann, a German botanist reached the conclusion that not only plants, but animal tissue as well is composed of cells. This ended debates that plants and animals were fundamentally different in structure. He also pulled together and organized previous statement on cells into one theory, which states: 1 - Cells are organisms and all organisms consist of one or more cells 2 - The cell is the basic unit of structure for all organisms -
Louis Pasteur
In 1850, Louis Pasteur contributed to the cell theory by disproving spontaneous generation. He was the first scientist to prove that cells can only form from pre-existing cells. He did this by creating an experiment that showed cells would only grow in broth if air was exposed -
Joseph Jackson Lister
In 1930 Joseph Jackson Lister reduces the problem with spherical aberration by showing that several weak lenses used together at certain distances gave good magnification without blurring the image. -
Rudolf Virchow
In 1955, Rudolf Virchow, a German physiologist/physician/pathologist added the 3rd part to the cell theory. The original is Greek, and states Omnis cellula e cellula. This translates as all cells develop only from existing cells. Virchow was also the first to propose that diseased cells come from healthy cells.
