The Existence of Cells
Year of Discovery: 1665
What Is It? The cell is the basic building block of all living organisms.
Who Discovered It? Robert Hooke
Why Is This One of the 100 Greatest?
The cell is the basic unit of anatomy. Countless millions of cells build living plants and
animals. The functions of a body can be studied by studying individual cells. Just as the discovery of the molecule and atom allowed scientists to better understand chemical substances, Hooke’s discovery of the cell has allowed biologists to better understand living
organisms.
Hooke’s work with a microscope opened the public’s eyes to the microscopic world
just as Galileo’s work with the telescope opened their eyes to a vast and wondrous universe.
Hooke’s work and discoveries mark the moment when microscopy came of age as a scientific discipline.
How Was It Discovered?
Robert Hooke was a most interesting fellow. Weak and sickly as a child, Hooke’s parents never bothered to educate him because they didn’t think he would survive. When
Hooke was still alive at age 11, his father began a halfhearted, homeschool education. When
Hooke was 12, he watched a portrait painter at work and decided, “I can do that.” Some initial sketches showed that he was good at it.
The next year Hooke’s father died, leaving Hooke a paltry inheritance of only £100.
Hooke decided to use the money to apprentice himself to a painter, but quickly learned that
the paint fumes gave him terrible headaches.
He used his money instead to enter Westminster school. On one of his first days there,
Hooke listened to a man play the school organ and thought, “I can do that.” Hooke soon
proved that he was good at it and learned both to play and to serve as a choirmaster.
Unfortunately, the new English puritanical government banned such frivolity as
church choirs and music. Hook’s money had been wasted. Not knowing what else to do,
Hooke hired himself out as a servant to rich science students at nearby Oxford University.
Hooke was fascinated with science and again thought, “I can do that.” As it turns out, he
was exceptionally good at it. His servitude at Oxford (mostly to Robert Boyle) was the start
of one of the most productive science careers in English history. Hooke soon developed an
excellent reputation as a builder and as an experimenter.
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