Theodor schleiden biography wikipedia

Cells are the basic unit of structure in all living organisms and also the basic unit of reproduction. Cell theory has traditionally been accepted as the governing theory of all life , [ 1 ] but some biologists consider non-cellular entities such as viruses living organisms [ 2 ] and thus disagree with the universal application of cell theory to all forms of life.

With continual improvements made to microscopes over time, magnification technology became advanced enough to discover cells. This discovery is largely attributed to Robert Hooke , and began the scientific study of cells, known as cell biology. When observing a piece of cork under the scope, he was able to see pores.

Theodor schwann contribution to cell theory

This was shocking at the time as it was believed no one else had seen these. To further support his theory, Matthias Schleiden and Theodor Schwann both also studied cells of both animal and plants. What they discovered were significant differences between the two types of cells. This put forth the idea that cells were not only fundamental to plants, but animals as well.

The discovery of the cell was made possible through the invention of the microscope. In the first century BC, Romans were able to make glass. They discovered that objects appeared to be larger under the glass. The expanded use of lenses in eyeglasses in the 13th century probably led to wider spread use of simple microscopes magnifying glasses with limited magnification.

Compound microscopes , which combine an objective lens with an eyepiece to view a real image achieving much higher magnification, first appeared in Europe around In , Robert Hooke used a microscope about six inches long with two convex lenses inside and examined specimens under reflected light for the observations in his book Micrographia.

Hooke also used a simpler microscope with a single lens for examining specimens with directly transmitted light, because this allowed for a clearer image.