-
Zacharias Janssen
Zacharias Janssen and his father created the compound light microscope,which allowed scientists to more closely observe living things and eventually discover cells. The discovery of cells led to the creation of the cell theory and disapprovement of spontaneous generation. -
Robert Hooke
Robert Hooke, using a light microscope, found that cork was composed of "little boxes". He noticed that stems, roots, and ferns were all made of the same thing, which he began to call cells. His discovery of cells was instrumental in the advancements of cell knowledge. -
Francesco Redi
Redi conducted an experiment and found that flies could only come from other flies, thus disproving spontaneous generation and adding to the cell theory. -
Anton von Leeuwenhoek
Anton von Leeuwenhoek, who was a maker of microscopes, was the first person to observe bacteria and "animalcules". He also conducted experiments to disprove spontaneous generation by using bacteria. -
Matthias Schleiden
Matthias Schleiden found that all plants were made of cells. By reaching that conclusion, he was halfway to the first two parts of the cell theory- that all living things are composed of cells and are the basic structure of life. -
Theodor Schwann
Theodor Schwann discovered that all animals are made of cells. This discovery was one of the key parts of the cell theory. -
Rudolf Virchow
Virchow found that all cells came from other cells, a main part in cell theory. This directly disproved spontaneous generation because it was now known that living things came from living things. -
Louis Pasteur
Pasteur conducted an experiment that disproved spontaneous generation. Soup was placed in one container with a curved neck and did not go bad, while soup placed in a container with a straight neck had microoganisms settle into it.
