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The Study Of Cells From 330 Years Ago

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The study of cells started about 330 years ago. Before that time cells escaped notice because of their small size. With the invention of the microscope and its subsequent improvement, cells became visible and many new discoveries were made about them. Even today the study of cells reveals more detail, and its secrets, which are in fact the secrets of life itself, are revealed with ever increasing clarity. In 1665, English Scientist and Microscopist Robert Hooke described a honeycomb-like network of cellulae (Latin for little storage rooms) in cork slice using his primitive compound microscope. Robert Hooke used the term cells to describe units in plant tissue (thick cell walls could be observed). Of course he saw only cell walls because cork cells are dead and without protoplasm. He drew the cells he saw and also coined the word cell. The word cell is derived from the latin word cellula which means small compartment. Hooke published his findings in his famous work, Micrographia. Hooke anticipated some of the most important discoveries and inventions of his time but failed to carry many of them through to completion. He formulated the theory of planetary motion as a problem in mechanics, and grasped, but did not develop mathematically, the fundamental theory on which the English physicist Sir Isaac Newton formulated the law of gravitation. Hooke 's most important contributions include the correct formulation of the theory of elasticity, which states that an elastic body

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