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Robert Hooke
He looked at a piece of cork under a microscope and saw some "pores" or cells in it. When describing the cork, he was the first person to identify microscopic structures using the word "cell." Since he was the first person to discover the cell, he disproved many theories that people had of what the smallest unit of life was. -
Anton Van Leewenhoek
He was the first to see and describe bacteria, yeast plants, and the circulation of blood. Also, he invented the first pracitcal microscope. The microscope helped him observe and describe cells better than his contemporary Robert Hooke which is how it disproves his model. -
Henri Dutrochet
He was the first to observe mechanisms of repiration, sensitivity of light, and geotropism in plants. Also, he invented a device to measure osmotic pressure, a technique to find heat production, and was one of the first to recognize the importance of cells for the functioning of the organism. He disproved Leeuwenhoek because he said everything came from the cell. -
Felix Dujardin
His studies of microscopic animal life led him to propose a new group of one-celled animals called protozoans. He disproved the theory saying that microscopic organisms have the same organs as higher animals. -
Matthias Schleiden
He was the first to recognize cells as the fundamental units of life. He renamed the cell nucleus cytoblast. He knew that the nucleus must somehow be connected with the division of cells, but he believed that they erupted from the nucleur surface. -
Theodor Schwann
He discovered the digestive enzyme and he showed that yeast were tiny plant-like organisms. Also recognized plant structures similar to what Schleiden had observed in plants. He disproved Schleiden's theory to animals by including the animal world. Schwann believed new cells form from outside preexisting cells. -
Rudolf Virchow
He discovered that a whole organism doesn't get sick, only groups of cells. Rudolf said "every cell stems from another cell" and all diseases involve changes in normal cells. He also found cells in bones and connective tissue. His theory didn't disprove the other scientist's findings.
