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1500 BCE
Ancient Egyptians
The Ancient Egyptians, through their sacred tradition of mummification, had already known much about human anatomy. This was further explored by the Ancient Egyptians to figure out which organ did what and how it did it. These discoveries are the basis for the second part of the Cell Theory. -
1000
Medieval Period
In the Middle Ages, an interest in biology was developed. Around this time, most of the scientific theories were religion-based. Many of the "scientists" of the time were also affiliated with, and even advocates of religious doctrine. At this point, most people believed in the idea of spontaneous generation or the belief that life appeared on earth, facilitated by God. -
Robert Hooke
Robert Hooke was mainly an astronomer in the late 1600s, making many discoveries about orbits and axes. He is most notable, however, for his work titled Micrographia, where he observed the small honeycomb-like structures of cork. He is most famous for being the first to use the word "cell" in his research. -
Francesco Redi
Francesco Redi most notably disputed the idea of spontaneous generation by performing his meat-in-jars experiment. He concluded that all living things must come from previously living things, laying the groundwork for the fithird part of the cell theory. -
Anton van Leeuwenhoek
After a trip to London in 1666, Leeuwenhoek, a Dutch scientist, improved upon the design of the Microscope. Leeuwenhoek is credited with being the first to discover microbes in pondwater which he called "animalcules". -
Lazzaro Spallanzani
Spallanzani tried to disprove the idea of Spontaneous Generation by sterilizing broth and corking it. This prevented the broth from becoming cloudy. Most people of the time disagreed with this method because it prohibited the "life force" in the air from reaching the broth. -
Jean Baptiste Lamarck
Lamarck was the first to suggest that organisms evolve over time and adapt to their environment. He also believed that organisms inherit certain traits from their parents. He helped to further provide evidence for the third part of the cell theory. -
Robert Brown
Brown challenged the idea that cells were empty containers. He also observed the nucleus of cells and how it facilitates reproduction. -
Matthias Schleiden
Discovered that all plants are made up of cells. He also noticed that different plant tissues had similar structures. He helped to develop the first part of the Cell Theory. -
Theodor Schwann
Schwan Built upon the research of Schoeden and discovered that some different animal tissues were made up of similar animal structures. His discoveries solidified the first part of the cell theory. -
Rudolf Virchow
Virchow observed that disease cells and tissues contained patterns that would only be there if cells could only come from other, pre-existing cells. He built off of the findings of Francesco Redi to come up with the third part of the cell theory. -
Louis Pasteur
Pasteur disproved the ideas of spontaneous generation and vitalism for good with his experiments using his invention of the swan-necked flask. Using his invention he demonstrated that organisms can only come from other living things. He used Spallanzani's and Redi's work to completely disprove spontaneous generation. -
Period: to
The Future
Science is the study of the world around us and how it works, so it is always changing. New discoveries are being made that disprove old theories, and we can never know what will come next. It might seem silly to us today that people in 1830 didn't know that flies had to come from maggots, but maybe in the 20,230 people will think it was silly that in 2023 we thought cells divide to multiply. Who knows?
Works Cited -
https://tinyurl.com/erft7ep6