The Discovery of the Cell Theory

  • First Observation of the Cell

    First Observation of the Cell
    While observing a cork slice using a compound microscope, an English scientist Robert Hooke came across a honeycomb-like structure. These structures were actually cell walls of the cork's dead tissue. Thus, Hooke coined the term "cell" for the structures he observed.
  • First Observation of Living Cells

    First Observation of Living Cells
    A Dutch biologist Anton van Leeuwenhoek observed the cells of a pond water with a microscope that he made.
  • Furthered Discoveries on a Microscope

    Furthered Discoveries on a Microscope
    Anton van Leeuwenhoek made a number of furthered discoveries with his microscope. He published a letter to the Royal Society, including detailed illustrations of what he saw on a microscopic level. Among these were the first bacteria and protozoa.
  • Obeservation of the Nucleus- center of the cell

    Obeservation of the Nucleus- center of the cell
    While observing plant cells, an English botanist Robert Brown discovered the center of the cell called the Nucleus.
  • Cells are the Basic Building Blocks

    Cells are the Basic Building Blocks
    A German botanist Matthias Jakob Schleiden proposes that all plant tissues are made of cells. Proposing that cells are the basic building structure of all plants. This was the first ever generalization made about cells.
  • Cell Theory

    Cell Theory
    A German botanist Theodor Schwann proposes that besides plants, animal tissues are composed of cells as well. This allowed the debates that plants and animals were fundamentally different in structure to reach a consensus. He pulled together theories that 1. All organisms consist of one are more cells. 2. Cells are the basic unit of structure for all organisms.
  • Discovery of Life

    Discovery of Life
    A Swiss anatomist called Albrecht von Roelliker makes a discovery that explains sperm and eggs are also cells.
  • Cell called the Basic Unit of Life

    Cell called the Basic Unit of Life
    German botanist Carl Heinrich Braun amends the cell theory by calling cells the basic unit of life.
  • 3rd part of the Cell Theory

    3rd part of the Cell Theory
    A German physiologist/physician/pathologist Rudolf Virchow makes an addition to the third part of the cell theory. 3. Cells come only from the reproduction of existing cells. Virchow was also one of the first to prove that diseased cells come from existing healthy cells.