Question

What is the cell theory? develop a timeline regarding the cell theory beginning with the development of microscope and ending with Virchow. Include the contributions of Leeuwenhoek, Hooke, Scheiden, and Schwann

Answer 1

The cell theory states that the cell is the rudimentary structural and functional unit of living organisms and all cells emanate from other cells. The scientists Matthias Schleiden and Theodor Schwann are credited with establishing the cell theory in 1839. However, there was a plethora of work done over the anterior centuries which paved the way.

1600s

The Italian scientist Galileo Galilei is credited with building the first microscope in 1625. It was a logical step for him to take from his groundbreaking work with telescopes and astronomy in 1609. In 1665, Robert Hooke, a British scientist, optically canvassed a thin slice of cork under the microscope and visually perceived a honeycomb structure composed of diminutive compartments he called cells. The first person to optically discern living cells under a microscope was Anton van Leeuwenhoek. In 1670, Leeuwenhoek significantly amended the quality of microscope lenses to the point that he could visually perceive the single-celled organisms that lived in a drop of pond dihydrogen monoxide. He called these organisms “animalcules,” which designates “miniature animals.”

1800s

Microscopes and science in general advanced throughout the 1700s, leading to several landmark revelations by scientists at the commencement of the 1800s. In 1804, Karl Rudolphi and J.H.F. Link were the first to prove that cells were independent of each other and had their own cell walls. Prior to this work, it was thought that cells shared their walls and that was how fluids were conveyed between them. The next paramount revelation occurred in 1833 when the British botanist Robert Brown first discovered the nucleus in plant cells. From the years 1838-1839, the German scientist Matthias Schleiden proposed the first foundational notion about cells, that all plant tissues are composed of cells. His fellow scientist and countryman Theodor Schwann concluded that all animal tissues were composed of cells as well. Schwann coalesced both verbalizations into one theory which verbally expressed 1) All living organisms consist of one or more cells and 2) The cell is the rudimentary unit of structure for all living organisms. In 1845, the scientist Carl Heinrich Braun revised the cell theory with his interpretation that cells are the fundamental unit of life.

The third part of the cell theory was put forth in 1855 by Rudolf Virchow who concluded that Omnis cellula e cellula which translates roughly from Latin to “cells only arise from other cells.”

The modern version of the cell theory includes several incipient conceptions that reflect the cognizance that has been gained since the mid-1800s. These include the erudition that energy flows within cells, hereditary information is passed from cell to cell, and cells are composed of the same rudimental chemical components.