History of the Cell Theory
By: Madie Smith
Cells
In biology the cell theory is a scientific theory that describes the properties of cells. Which are the basic unit of structures of all organisms. The initial development of the theory of during mid-17th century, was made possible by advances in microscopy. (the study of cells is called cell biology) The Cell Theory is one of the foundations of biology. Observations of Hooke, Leeuwenhoek, Schleiden, Schwann, Virchow, and others led to development of the Cell Theory. Also the cell theory is wildly accepted explanation of the relationship between cells and living things. The three tents to the cell theory are,
1.All organisms have one or more cells.
2.The cell is the most basic unit structure function and organization in all organisms.
3.A cells arise from pre-existing, living cells.
Robert Hooke
Robert Hooke was born on July 28, 1635, and died on March 3, 1703. Anyway Hooke was the first person to discover cells in 1665. Hooke one day looked at very thin slices of bottle cork and saw a multitude of tiny pores. He thought they looked like the wall compartments a monk would live in so he called them cells. He did not know cells had real structures or functions. Hooke thought cells were empty cell walls of plant tissue. Without ever thinking cells could be alive. Also since his microscope had a very low magnification making it difficult to observe the internal organization of the structure he had discovered. Hooke did not think "cellulae" could be alive. Hooke's description of these cells was published in Micrographia. His cell observation gave no indication of the nucleus and other organelles found in most living cells.
Anton van Leeuwenhoek
Anton Van Leeuwenhoek was born on October 24, 1632. And he passed away on August 26, 1723. Well Leeuwenhoek made a use of a microscope containing much better lenses that could magnify objects almost 300-fold. In 1674 Leeuwenhoek described the algae spirogyra and named the moving organisms animalcules, meaning "little animals." He also saw bacteria. Bacteria are microscope(very tiny) organisms that are unicellular.(made up of a single cell)
Theodor Schwann
Theodor Schwann was born on December 7, 1810. And he passed away on January 11, 1882. Well he has had many contributions to biology. Theodor had many contributions to biology included the development of the cell theory. This discovery of Schwann cells in the peripheral nervous system, the discovery and study of pepsin. Which is the discovery the organic nature of the yeast, and the invention of the term metabolism.
Matthias Schleiden
Matthias Schleiden was born on April 5, 1804. And he died on June 23, 1881. Anyway Matthias was a German botanist and a co-founder of the cell theory. Schleiden preferred to study plant structure under the microscope. While he was a professor of botany at the University of Jena, he wrote Contributions to Phytogenesis, in which he started that the different parts of the plant organism are composed of cell.
Rudolf Virchow
Rudolf Virchow was born on October 13, 1821. He passed away on September 5, 1902. He was a German doctor, anthropologist, and a biologist. He was known as "the farther of modern pathology."