History of the Cell :: essays research papers

History of the Cell The word cell was coined by Englishman Robert Hooke (1635-1703), after viewing slices of cork in a microscope. The word cell was derived from the Latin word cella meaning small container. The microscope created new possibilities in the study biology. It allowed scientists to look into a completely new view of cellular biology. Galileo is credited with the invention of the microscope. Two of the main pioneers in microscope usage were Robert Hooke and Antonie von Leeuwenhoek. Rene Dutrochet discovered, in 1824, that the cell is the fundamental element in the structure of life. The first sightings of the actual movement of a cell were made by Robert Brown in 1827. Brown also discovered the nucleus in 1833. In Berlin, Johannes Muller made the connection between biology and medicine, others soon followed Muller and his connective thinking. One to follow Muller was Theodore Schwann. Schwann created the idea of the "cell theory" in the 1830's and stated that plants consisted of cells. His statement was made after Matthias Schleiden (1804 - 1881) had decided in 1838 that animals are composed of cells. In 1939 Schwann also stated that all organisms consist of one or more cells, and that the cell is the basic structure for all of life. German Pathologist by the name of Rudolf Virchow (1821 - 1902) altered the thought of cellular biology with his statement that "every cell comes from a cell.† Not even twenty years after this statement, processes of cell reproduction were being described. In 1898, Camillo Golgi developed a staining technique using silver nitrate that allows the identification of the cellular organelle that now bears his name, the â€Å"Golgi apparatus.† The Golgi apparatus is responsible for processing the proteins that are synthesized in the endoplasmic reticulum. In 1953 Stanley Lloyd Miller conducted his famous primordial soup experiment. His experiment may have possibly shown how life’s building blocks here on earth may have formed. In the experiment he subjected a gaseous mixture of hydrogen, water, methane, and ammonia to an electric discharge for one week. Instead of him showing everyone that spontaneous generation was possible, his primordial soup showed him that it was not. Miller made sure that there was no oxygen in his design, but all throughout life there has been oxygen present.