Cell Theory Timeline

  • Robert Hooke

    Robert Hooke
    He contributed to the cell theory by stating that things are made of cells. This discovery was made while he was looking at a piece of cork the pores he saw reminded him of cells that were in monasteries. This discovery began the cell theory which helped because no one knew where people came from. This disproved the idea that all life arose from inaminate matter (Spontaneous Generation).
  • Anton van Leeuwenhoek

    Anton van Leeuwenhoek
    He contributed to the cell theory by being the first person to witness a live cell under a microscope. This discovery was made when he scraped his teach and looked at the scrapings under a microscope and saw bacteria and moving organisms that he described as “little animals”. This discovery proved to people that cells were motile and could move.
  • Robert Brown

    Robert Brown
    He contributed to the cell theory by stating that cells have a nucleus. This discovery was made while he was observing orchid cells. He realized that cells had an opaque spot in them and he described that spot as an areola. This discovery gave proof to people that cells were capable of being broken down into smaller parts.
  • Matthias Jakob Schleiden

    Matthias Jakob Schleiden
    He contributed to the cell theory that every part of plants are made of cells, and they are the building block of life. Since he was a botanist and studied plant species under microscopes and realized all plants had cells. This discovery proved that the role of cells wasn’t known until this discovery. This was also the first generalized statement about cells.
  • Thedore Schwann

    Thedore Schwann
    He contributed to the cell theory that every part of animals are made of cells and they are the building blocks of life. Since he was a zoologist he made this discovery by studying animal parts under a microscope. This discovery cleared up any confusion that plants and animals were different in structure and not both made of cells.
  • Rudolf Virchow

    Rudolf Virchow
    He contributed to the cell theory by stating that cells come from pre-existing cells. This discovery was made when he borrowed research from different scientists including a Jewish scientist named Robert Remak and eventually came to this conclusion. Before this discovery was made people thought that cells were created by spontaneious crystallization.