• Question: Who discovered cells and how did he do it?

    Asked by pranay900 to Alexis, Dr D, Helen, Jasmine, Mario on 20 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Andrew Devitt

      Andrew Devitt answered on 20 Jun 2013:

      I don’t know. What a great question. The real scientific discovery of cells will have come about as microscopes were discovered. This was all around 1600 and big names at the time were people like Robert Hook. He spent his time looking at stuff down the ‘scope and describing what he saw. Another big name was Leeuwenhoek who spent his time looking at small single-celled organisms. he called them ANIMACULES. Great eh?

    • Photo: Alexis Barr

      Alexis Barr answered on 20 Jun 2013:

      I think Andrew has already answered this question! Robert Hook did a great job though – I wouldn’t be able to do my job today if I didn’t have a microscope!

    • Photo: Jasmine Penny

      Jasmine Penny answered on 20 Jun 2013:

      This is such a fascinating question – and I just had to do some investigating to find out the answer! I think Andrew and Alexis are right. Robert Hooke is credited for ‘discovering the cell’. What he actually did was look down the microscope and describe what he saw – which is pretty much what we do now! He was looking at a really thin slice of cork under the microscope and what he saw reminded him of the small rooms for monks in a monastery known as cells. This was in the 1660s and the rest, as they say is history!

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