The Cell Theory
~Kaleigh Bauerle
Cells are the basic building blocks of life
Everything consists of cells
A cell can only form from other cells.
Robert Hooke (1653-1703)
Robert Hooke was a scientist that looked at a piece of cork through a microscope and saw what he saw as cells. He named the cells after the cells in a monastery . He was 26 when he joined the Royal Society of Scientists and went into the research for King Charles the II of England. He calculated that there are about 1,259,712,000 cells in one cubic inch.
Anton van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723)
Anton van Leewenhoek was a Dutch biologist. In 1674 he improved the magnification on a microscope by making clearer lenses. In 1676 he discovered animalcules and in 1683 he discovered bacteria by looking at his own saliva.
Matthias Schleiden (1804-1881)
Matthias Jakob Shcleiden was born in Hamburg, Germany in 1804. He was a German botanist and discover that plant tissues are made out of cells. He also discover embryonic plants arose from single cells. He called a cell the " basic building blocks of life" which was the the first generalization concerning cells.
Theodor Schwann (1810-1881)
Theodor Schwann was a German physiologist who served as an assistant to Johannes Müller. He discovered the digestive enzyme pepsin in 1836. He discovered that yeast is a tiny plant like organism. He recognized nuclear structures similar to what Schleiden saw in plants in his own animal research. Theodor extended Schleiden's theory to animals sating that all living things are composed of cells. He theorized that cells form from outside pre-existing cells.
Rudolf Virchow (1821-1902)
Rudolf Virchow was a German pathologist. Just like Theodor Schwann he studied under Johannes Müller. Virchow opposed the idea that disease was an affliction of the body at large or one of its humors , wanting to find the anatomical location for disease. in 1858 he set out methods and objectives of pathology and demonstrated the cell theory applied to diseased tissues as well as healthy tissues. He summarized the cell theory with the Latin phrase "omnis cellula a cellula" which translates to every cell arises from a cell in 1855.