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Hans and Zacharias Janseen
Zacharias Janseen and his father Hans were know for inventing the compound optical microscope. The microscope contained several lenses that were put in a tube and considered three to nine times more advanced than a microscope before the 1590's. -
Robert Hooke
Robert Hooke was an English philosopher, as well as the first man to ever discover and name cells. Hooke discovered cells by slicing into a piece of cork with a primitive compound microscope, to find a "honeycomb-like structure." Hooke believed that the honeycomb shape resembled the rooms that monks lived in called a cellula, leading him to call the shapes cells. -
Anton van Leeuwenhoek
Anton van Leeuwenhoek invented the first practical microscope, as well as being the first person to see bacteria and micro-organisms. The practical microscope worked by holding it up to one's eye with the sample elevated on a pin. -
Matthias Schleiden
Matthias Schleiden was a German physiologist who formulated the cell theory. Schleiden stated that every cell originates from another and that all plants are made of cells. -
Theodor Schwann
Theodor Schwann was a German physiologist who discovered pepsin. Pepsin helps protein break down in the digestive system, as well as one of the main digestive enzymes for humans and various other animals. Schwann also discovered the delicate layer of cells surrounding the peripheral nerve fibres. -
Rudolph Virchow
Rudolph Virchow, a German physician is known for his several discoveries in cell theory and medicine. Before Virchow's theory it was believed that new cells were created from a fluid called blastema. Virchow's proved that theory wrong and instead said that cells arise from others. Virchow's work made other medical achievements easier to discover.
