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Hanns and Zachariah Janssen
produced first compound microscope -
Robert Hooke
first to call spaces in corks "cells" -
John Dalton
performed experiments with various chemicals that showed that matter, indeed, seem to consist of elementary lumpy particles (atoms). Although he did not know about their structure, he knew that the evidence pointed to something fundamental. -
Rudolph Virchow
stated that living cells come from other living cells -
JJ Thomson
discovered the electron and proposed a model for the structure of the atom. Thomson knew that electrons had a negative charge and thought that matter must have a positive charge. His model looked like raisins stuck on the surface of a lump of pudding. -
Max Planck
a professor of theoretical physics in Berlin showed that when you vibrate atoms strong enough, such as when you heat an object until it glows, you can measure the energy only in discrete units. He called these energy packets, quanta. -
Ernest Rutherford
thought it would prove interesting to bombard atoms with these alpha rays, figuring that this experiment could investigate the inside of the atom (sort of like a probe). He used Radium as the source of the alpha particles and shinned them onto the atoms in gold foil. Behind the foil sat a fluorescent screen for which he could observe the alpha particles impact. -
Bohr
came up with a theory that said the electrons do not spiral into the nucleus and came up with some rules for what does happen.