Cell Theory

Last updated Feb 9, 2023 Edit Source

• Biology

Cell theory is the basic foundation on which our understanding of cells is built.

Robert Hooke - 1665

• cork cells
• “tiny boxes”

Anton van Leeuwenhoek - 1673

• “Animacules”, later called bacteria

Robert Brown - 1833

• Discovered the nucleus in plant cells

Matthias Schleiden - 1838

• Every plant is made of cells

Theodor Schwann - 1839

• Every animal is made of cells

Albrecht von Roelliker - 1840

• Sperm + Egg are cells - life comes from cells.

Carl Heinrich Braun - 1845

• Reworks theory, names cells “the basic unit of life”

Rudolf Virchow - 1855

• Cells come from other cells

• The cell contains hereditary information (DNA) which is passed on from cell to cell during division.
• All cells are basically the same in terms of chemical composition and metabolic activities.
• All basic chemical and physiological functions are carried out inside cells. (Movement, digestion etc)
• Cell activity depends on the activities of sub-cellular structures within the cell (organelles, nucleus, plasma membrane etc etc)

Biology