History of the Cell Scientists and Their Discoveries
Robert Brown—Discovered that plant cells had smaller structures inside of them; one he called the nucleus.
1833
Francesco Redi—Proved that flies were not coming from raw meat (life was NOT coming from non-life) but
were coming from eggs laid in the meat by adult flies. 1660
Anton van Leeuwenhoek—Improves upon the microscope by developing over 200 different microscopes.
Made the first accurate description of red blood cells. 1650
Martha Chase and Alfred Hershey—Showed that DNA, and not proteins, was the molecule in viruses that
allowed them to reproduce. 1952
Rudolph Virchow—After studying cells in both plants and animals he called the cell the basic unit of life, and
said all cells come from other cells. 1858
William Harvey—English physician who discovered that blood circulates through the body. Considered the
father of modern medicine. 1628
Rosiland Franklin—first to x-ray photograph DNA strands, leading to the discovery of its double helix structure
by Watson and Crick, and to a better understanding of how cells reproduce. 1951
Matthias Schleiden and Theodor Schwann—After a long study of plants (Schleiden) and animals (Schwann)
they separately came to the conclusion that all living things are made of cells and that the nucleus is involved
in cell replication. 1839
Joseph Lister—British doctor discovered that the use of carbolic acid reduced infections in his patients. 1865
Robert Hooke—English scientist that was the first to observe cells of cork under the newly invented
microscope. Developed the compound microscope, using two lenses rather than one. Hooke actually
observed only cell walls of dead cells of oak tree bark. 1665
Louis Pasteur—Showed that living organisms caused the spoiling of milk and developed the process of
“pasteurization” which sterilizes milk to prevent it from spoiling. 1857
Alexander Fleming—Discovered penicillin. Penicillin was the first antibiotic used to kill infectious bacteria.
1928
Robert Koch—German scientist discovered that many diseases are caused by microscopic bacteria. 1876