-
Zacharias Jansen
Zacharias Jansen helped our understaning of cells by associated with the invention of the first optical telescope. Janssen is sometimes also credited for inventing the first truly compound microscope -
Robert Hooke
Hooke looked at thin slices of cork through his microscope and discovered little cells which he named because he described the Plant cells as resembling the cells where monks lived. He then developed this discovery into cell theory which he discovered in 1665. -
Anton von Leeuwenhoek
By using his handcrafted microscopes, he was the first to observe and describe single-celled organisms, which he originally referred to as animalcules, and which are now referred to as microorganisms. He was also the first to record microscopic observations of muscle fibers, bacteria, spermatozoa, and blood flow in capillaries -
Matthias Schleiden
After he became a co-founder of the cell theory, along with Theodor Schwann and Rudolf Virchow. He stated that the different parts of the plant organism are composed of cells. -
Theodore Schwan
His many contributions to biology include the development of cell theory, the discovery of Schwann cells in the peripheral nervous system, the discovery and study of pepsin, the discovery of the organic nature of yeast, and the invention of the term metabolism. Schwann microscopically viewed animal tissues, and found particular interest in nervous and muscular tissues. Schwann observed cells associating with the sheath of nerve fibers, cells now called Schwann cells. -
Rudolf Virchow
He is cited as the first to recognize leukemia cells. He was one of the first to accept the work of Robert Remak, who showed the origins of cells was the division of pre-existing cells. He did not initially accept the evidence for cell division, believing it only occurs in certain types of cells. -
Ernst Abbe
He discovered the optical formula now called the Abbe sine condition, one of the requirements that a lens must satisfy if it is to form a sharp image, free from the blurring or distortion caused by coma and spherical aberration
