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1984 BCE
The water microscope
4,000 years ago in the Chow-Foo dynasty -
1306
Girodina da Rivalta ( Monk)
Spectacles -
1476
Ancient Greeks
Miasma theory -
1546
Fracastoro
Begins the early version of germ theory in De Contagione et Contagiosis Morbis -
Hans & Zacharias Janssen
Make the 1st microscope by placing two lenses in a tube. -
Robert Hooke( English Scientist)
Observes cork cells under a microscope (primitive) , he comes up with the term cells. -
Robert Hooke
Observes cork cells under microscope -
Francesco Redi
Spontaneous Generation -
Anton van Leeuwenhoek
Discovered single-celled organisms and named them animalcules, after viewing pond water through a powerful magnifying lens that he also created. -
Anton van Leeuwenhoek
First to discribe cells and bacteria, extremely good lenses for the time. -
John Needham
Attempted to disprove Redi's spontaneous generation theory. -
Lazzaro Spallanzani 1729-1799
Excluded spontaneous generation as a viable theory. His experiment was successful but a strong rebuttal blunted his claims. -
Joseph Jackson Lister
Solves the problem spherical aberration with several weak lenses used together at different distances gives good magnification without blurring the image. -
Matthias Scheiden & Theodor Schwann
Studied plant and animal cells. He was able to view the nucleus, the structure within the cells that controls cell function. Their ideas formed the basis for the cell theory. -
Rudof Virchow
Studied cellular pathology and proposed that all cells came from other cells. The hypothesis explains how all living things grow and reproduce. -
Louis Pasteur 1822-1895
Disproves spontaneous generation with his "Famous Experiment" Swan neck flask. -
Ernst Abbe
Formulates a mathimatical theory correlating resolution to the wavelengh of light. Abbes calculations maximize resolution in microscopes possible. -
Walter Fleming
Discovered cell mitosis and chromosomes.
Recognized as one of the 100 most important scientific achievements of all time. -
Zeiss August Kohler
Figured out an unparalleled illumination system known as Kohler illumination. -
Richard Zsigmondy
Develops the ultra-microscope, giving the ability to study objects below the wavelength of light. -
Max Knoll & Ernst Ruska
Invented the first electron microscope, that blasted past the optical limitations of the light. -
Frits Zernike
Invents the phase-contrast microscope, the study of colourless and transparent biological materials. -
Ernst Ruska
Developed the electron microscope.
Improves the resolutions and greatly expands the borders of exploration. -
Stanley Miller & Harold Urey
Experiment established the hypothetical processes could produce some building blocks of life without requiring life to synthesize them first. Used materials & components of early earth's atmosphere ( water, methane, ammonia and hydrogen). -
Lynn Margulis
First made the case for endosymbiosis. -
Gerd Binnig & Heinrich Rohrer
Invent scanning tunneling microscope, gives three- dimensional images of objects down to the atomic level.
