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Zacharias Janssen
Invented the compound microscope in 1595. This is an important contribution to cell theory because scientists needed the tool to start in the field of microbiology. This invention metaphorically created microbiology and allowed scientists to do work in this field of science. -
Robert Hooke
Robert Hooke publishes his book "micrographia" in which it details all of his findings about the cell. He is the first person to examine a cell (Dead tree cells) and also made small improvements to the microscope. He is the first person to use the word cell to describe the biological unit that makes up organisms. His contribution to cell theory was the word "cell" and his discovery of cells in a peice of cork. -
Anton van Leeuwenhoek
He contributed to cell theory his observations of bacteria, protozoa and ameoba. He is the first person to do so and his findings were useful 150 years later, when a unified understanding of cells were created. -
Matthias Schleiden
Concluded that all plants are made up of cells. His conclusions helped scientists come to a more unified understanding of part one of cell theory which states "all living things are made up of cells." -
Theodor Schwan
He, with help from Matthias Schleiden, created part two of cell theory which states "Cells are the basic units of structure and function in an organism." He did this by taking what Schleiden knew and applying it to animal cells; his conclusion was the same as Schleiden's in that "all plants are made up of cells," however he concluded the same for animals. -
Rudolf Virchow
Concluded that cells come from the reproduction of other cells, which is part three of Cell Theory. This is what he contributed to Cell Theory: That cells come from the reproduction of other cells. -
Louis Pasteur
Contribution to cell theory: ruling out the previously accepted idea of spontaneous generation by proving beyond a reasonable doubt that cell theory is correct. This made this theory more likely to be correct by ruling out an answer. Spontaneous generation was a theory that, in summary, showed that living things came from nonliving things. Pasteur in his experiment proved that living things come from living things.
