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Cell Theory Essay

Decent Essays

Historical Development – Cell Theory

1. Robert Hooke – In 1662, he observed tiny compartments in the cork of a mature tree and gave them the Latin name cellulae (meaning small rooms). This was the origin of the biological term cell.

2. Anton Von Leeuwenhoek - By the late 1600s, he had observed diverse protistans, sperm, even a bacterium – an organism so small it would not be seen again for another two centuries.

3. R.J.H. Dutrochet – French botanist who prepared plant cells and studied them between 1824 and 1830. He discovered and named the phenomenon of …show more content…

8. Rudolf Virchow – In 1849, he completed his studies of cell growth and reproduction of their division into two cells. He concluded that every cell comes from an already existing cell.

9. Walther Flemming – In the early 1880s, while using dyes to study the structure of cells, he found a structure, which strongly absorbed dye, and named it chromatin. He observed that the chromatin separated into stringy objects during cell division, which became known as chromosomes. Flemming named the division of somatic cells mitosis, from a Greek word for thread. He also observed that the chromosomes formed two star shaped structures on either side of the dividing cell, which he named asters.

10. C. Golgi – In 1898, he described the existence of a network of thread like structures and small sacs (vesicles) in the cytoplasm of nerve cells. This complex organelle composed of flattened sacs and vesicles is now known as a Golgi body or Golgi apparatus.

11. J.D. Watson and F.H.C. Crick – In 1953, after Watson realized that the shape of the base pairs meant they could only be arranging in a certain way, Watson and Crick published a

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