Chemistry Humanizer

Zacharias Janssen

A Dutch spectacle maker who created the first compound microscope. (He built the tool that made it all possible!)

Robert Hooke

Looked at a thin slice of cork (dead plant bark) under a microscope. He saw tiny, empty room-like boxes and named them "cells" after cellulae, the small rooms monks lived in.

Antonie van Leeuwenhoek

Improved microscope lenses and became the first person to see living cells. He looked at pond water and dental scrapings, finding tiny moving creatures he called "animalcules" (which were actually protists and bacteria).

Matthias Schleiden (1838) & Theodor Schwann (1839)

****** studied plants and concluded that all plants are made of cells. ****** studied animals and concluded that all animals are made of cells.

Rudolf Virchow (1855)

Proposed "Omnis cellula e cellula", meaning all cells come from pre-existing cells. Cells don't magically appear out of nowhere; they divide to make new ones.