Cell Theory Timeline

  • Hooke

    Hooke
    Hooke was given this project from Sir Christopher Wren. Hooke invented ways of controlling the height and angle of microscopes as well as mechanisms of 50x enabling insight to a world not yet known. He discovered empty spaces contained by walls, and called them pores, or cells. Hooke gained credit for discovering the building blocks of all life. Hooke ignited the spark of cell theory.
  • Leeuwenhoek

    Leeuwenhoek
    Leeuwenhoek built microscope with 250x magnification and Hooke's was only 50x. He also saw that cells were not empty as Hooke said. Showed technical genius by building microscopes that could magnify 250x. Leeuwenhoek sought the composition of cells. Report of globules in the cell was one of the first sightings of cell nuclei.
  • Brown

    Brown
    Brown chose the cells of Asclepiads and orchids to further his study. In them Brown noticed pollen traveling in and out of the ovals in their cells. He termed the oval "the nucleus". Statements suggested the nucleus played a key role in fertilization and development of the embryo in plants. Brown not only named the nucleus, but created the possibility that it was at the center of cellular creation.
  • Schwann

    Schwann
    Schwann said that all animals and plants are full of cells instead of just plants, like Brown said. Schwann wrote that cells formed by crystallization of inanimate material inside the cell. Published a monograph that declared all animals and plants are made from one single fundamental unit.
  • Schleiden

    Schleiden
    Schleiden opposed organic view believing instead in a physiochemical explanation. He stated that the different parts of the plant organism are composed of cells. Schleiden and Schwann became the first to form the informal belief as a principle of biology equal in importance to the atomic theory of chemistry. He recognized the importance of the cell nucleus, and sensed its connection with cell division.
  • Virchow

    Virchow
    Virchow independently coined the phrase "Omnis cellula e cellula"(cells originate from cells). He published his lectures in a book called "Cellulr Pathology as Based Upon Physiological and Pathological Histology". The book contained the updated view of cell creation,covered cells in blood,lymph,nutrition,the nervous system,fat degeneration,inflammation,and the growth of pathological tissue,including cancer. The book's popularity casted Virchow as the Father of Pathology.