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Helmont discovered the idea of spontaneous generation. Spontaneous generation is the supposed production of living organisms from nonliving matter.
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In the 1590's Zacharias Jansen and his father invented the compound microscope by combining to convex lenses.
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English physicist Robert Hooke looked at a sliver of cork through a microscope lens and discovered a honey-comblike structure in it. Hooke later called these cells.
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Leeuwenhoek improved the microscope by putting lenses on it in 1670. While observing pond water he discovered single-celled organisms that he called animalcules. He was also one of the first people to observe and discover bacteria
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Oken stated that all living things are made up of cells.
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Brown recognized the general occurrence of the nucleus in cells and was the first to recognize the nucleus as an essential constituent of living cells.
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Schleiden proposed that all plant tissues are composed of cells, and that cells are the basic building blocks in plants.
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Schwann concluded that not olny plants, but animal tissue as well is composed of cells.
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Roelliker discovered that sperm and eggs are also cells.
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Virchow adds the third part of the cell theory, which says that all living things come from other living things.
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Pasteur came up with a process that prevented milk and wine from going bad and making people sick, which is now called pasturization.
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Aristotle got the idea that genes do exist and that every living thing has their own set of genes, which gave every living thing a parent and a predictable offspring
