Robert Hooke
Robert Hooke was an English scientist credited most famously for the creation of Hooke’s Law (a principle of physics that states that the force needed to extend or compress a spring by some distance is proportional to that distance) in 1660 and the discovery of plant cells using a compound microscope in 1663.
The compound microscope uses two or more lenses, which are connected by a hollow tube. The top lens (called the eyepiece) is the one that people look through, and the bottom lens is called the objective lens. This means that the specimen is magnified twice as much as a simple microscope.
Hooke developed his microscope with a new screw operated focusing mechanism that he had designed himself. …show more content…
It was published in September 1665 and is famous for its stunning illustrations, which were drawn by the man himself. One of his most notable observations was done on a flea, which he placed under the microscope and could observe the tiny hairs on its body.
Cellular theory
Cellular theory is one of the most basic principles in the field of biology. It has three main components; that every living organism is comprised of cells; these cells are the basic units and structure of life; and that the cells are created from pre-existing cells.
This theory was shaped by the discoveries of three German scientists; Matthias Schleiden, Theodor Schwann and Rudolph Virchow.
Schleiden, a professor of botany at the University of Jena in Germany, was a hot-headed man who derided his fellow botanists for simply naming and describing plants, since he preferred investigating them microscopically. One day, he was studying plants under the microscope when he discovered that the different parts of a plant were made of cells and he realised that plants arose from just a single cell. These were the first statements regarding cells and they were recorded in a book Schleiden published in 1838, entitled ‘Contributions to Phytogenesis’. Schleiden was also the scientist to recognise the importance of the cell nucleus, after its discovery in 1831 by a Scottish botanist named Robert