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Robert Hooke
English physicist Robert Hooke looked at a sliver of cork through a microscope lens and noticed some "pores" or "cells" in it. Robert Hooke believed the cells had served as containers for the "fibrous threads" of the once-living cork tree. Hooke was the first person to use the word "cell" to identify microscopic structures when he was describing cork -
Anton van Leeuwenhoek
Anton Van Leeuwenhoek used microscopes to view pond organisms, bacteria and blood cells. He made careful sketches of what he observed. -
Robert Brown
Robert Brown discovered the cell nucleus. -
Theodor Schwann
Schwann proposed that all organisms are composed of cells. Together with Matthias Schleiden he formulated the cell theory of life. Schwann also discovered the cells, now known as Schwann cells, that form a sheath surrounding nerve axons and conducted experiments that helped disprove the theory of spontaneous generation. -
Jakob Schleidon
Theodor Schwann and Matthias "Jakob Schleiden" created what is called the cell theory. The cell theory states that all living things are made up of one or more cells. -
Rudolf Carl Virchow
Rudolf Virchow published his now-famous aphorism omnis cellula e cellula ("every cell stems from another cell"). He also stated that all diseases involve changes in normal cells.