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Aristotle had the first ideas of spontaneous generation. He denied that the earth had a beginning, therefore spontaneous generation has always been occuring. Aristotle said that animals of some kinds arise directly from elements and the pneuma of the material.
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Jan Baptist van Helmont used experimental techniques to back the theory of Spontaneous Generation. Came up with "recipe" for mice and scorpions.
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Zacharias Jansen invented the first simple single-lens microscope and the compound two-lens microscope which made people actually able to see cells.
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Robert Hooke discovered and named the cell.
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Anton van Leeuwenhoek discovered bacteria by taking a sample of lake water.
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Lorenz Oken was a German naturalist that stated that all organic beings come from and consist of vesicles and cells. This statement contributed to the cell theory.
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Robert Brown discovered the nucleus of a cell, broading the knowledge of cells.
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Theodor Schwann and Matthias Schleiden propose the idea of cell theory after studying over cells together.
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Matthias Schleiden states that cells are the basic building blocks to plant matter.
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Theodor Schwann was a master microscopist that stated that all living things are composed of cells. This contributed to the cell theory.
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Rudolf Virchow discovered that a whole organism does not get sick- only certain cells or groups of cells get sick. He also made the observation that every cell stems from another cell.
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Albrecht von Roelliker was the first to interpret the structure of tissue involving cells. He also described mitochondria. This discovery helped scientists better understand the cell structure.
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Louis Pasteur denied and disproved spontaneous generation with his experiment on fermentation.
