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Robert Hooke
English physicist Robert Hooke looked at a sliver of cork through a microscope lens and noticed some "cells" in it. Hooke was the first person to use the word "cell" to identify microscopic structures when he was describing cork. -
Francesco Redi
an Italian physician, did an experiment to determine if rotting meat turned into flies. He found that meat cannot turn into flies and only flies could make more flies. This was an important experiment because it helped to disprove the theory of spontaneous generation. It did this by showing that the rotten meat did not turn into flies and only flies could make more flies. -
John Needham
a Scottish clergyman and naturalist, showed that soup that had been exposed to the air contained many micro organisms. He claimed that there was a "life force" present in the molecules of all inorganic matter, including air and the oxygen in it, that could cause spontaneous generation to occur. -
Lazzaro Spallanzani
an Italian abbot and biologist, tried variations on John Needham’s soup experiments. He determined that soup in a sealed container was sterile and that micro organisms that caused the soup to spoil had entered from the air. -
Robert Brown
Robert Brown discovered the cell nucleus. -
Matthias Schleiden
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 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.
