The History of Cell Theory

The Wacky History of Cell Theory

 

From: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OpBylwH9DU

Taught and Narrated by Lauren-Royal Woods

Animated by Augenblick Studios

Published on June 4th, 2012 by TEDEducation

 

Summary:

The cell theory has a very interesting history of how it came into being. So, here are the three parts.

1. All organisms are composed of one or more cells.

2. The cell is the basic unit of structure and organization in organisms.

3. All cells come from preexisiting cells.

It all started with the invention of the compound microscope. As the microscope became very popular, scientists rushed to buy it. Anton von Leeuwenhoek built his own, and by looking at everything and anything under it, he eventually found bacteria, which he called "animacules" in his own teeth plaque. Meanwhile, he was sending his findings to Robert Hooke, who was interested in all sciences. Hooke also used the microscope. He is responsible for the name "cell". When he was looking at a piece of cork (which essentially is part of a dead plant) he noticed all the tiny compartments in it, which he called "cells". Later on, in the 1800s, two German scientists were simultaneously discovering that all organisms were made up of cells. Matthias Schleiden was one of them. He was a botanist, and one day he realized that all the various plants that he looked at under his microscope were composed of cells. At the same time, Theodore Schwann was looking at animal cells, and realized that all animals were made up of cells too. The two started working together to start composing this cell theory, but had a dispute over the last part. While Schwann thought that all cells came from preexisting cells, Schleiden proposed the idea of "free cell formation" where cells crystallized into being. Finally, as scientist named Rudolph Virchow came along with evidence showing that all cells did come from preexisting cells, proving that Schwann was right.

 

Relevance:

The relevance of this video comes from what we learned in class. This video is about the origins of the cell theory. In class we had a discussion about the cell theory and it's three parts. We also talked about how  various scientists proved the last part of the cell theory, that all cells came from preexisting cells, specifically Pasteur's expiriment. We also had to read about the cell theory in our textbook. This video gives us some background information about what we learned in class.