Biotech Cell Theory

NAME: DIZON, Dietrich J.
BS CHE
BIOTECHNOLOGY
CELL THEORY
What is this incredible object? Would it surprise you to learn that it is a human cell? The cell is
actually too small to see with the unaided eye. It is visible here in such detail because it is
being viewed with a very powerful microscope. Cells may be small in size, but they are
extremely important for life. Like all other living things, you are made of cells. Cells are the
basis of life, and without cells, life as we know it would not exist. You will learn more about
these amazing building blocks of life when you read this section.
5.2.15.2.1
Figure : (By N IAID/NIH (NIAID Flickr's photostream) [Public

domain], via Wikimedia Commons; Healthy Human T Cell.jpg)
If you look at a living matter with a microscope — even a simple light microscope — you will
see that it consists of cells. Cells are the basic units of the structure and function of living
things. They are the smallest units that can carry out the processes of life. All organisms are
made up of one or more cells, and all cells have many of the same structures and carry out the
same basic life processes. Knowing the structure of cells and the processes they carry out is
necessary to understanding life itself.
Discovery of Cells
The first time the word cell was used to refer to these tiny units of life was in 1665 by a British
scientist named Robert Hooke. Hooke was one of the earliest scientists to study living things
under a microscope. The microscopes of his day were not very strong, but Hooke was still able
to make an important discovery. When he looked at a thin slice of cork under his microscope,
he was surprised to see what looked like a honeycomb. Hooke made the drawing in the figure
below to show what he saw. As you can see, the cork was made up of many tiny units, which
Hooke called cells.
Soon after Robert Hooke discovered cells in cork, Anton van Leeuwenhoek in Holland made
other important discoveries using a microscope. Leeuwenhoek made his own microscope
lenses, and he was so good at it that his microscope was more powerful than other microscopes
of his day. In fact, Leeuwenhoek’s microscope was almost as strong as modern light
microscopes. Using his microscope, Leeuwenhoek was the first person to observe human cells
and bacteria.
5.2.25.2.2
Figure : Robert Hooke sketched these cork cells as they appeared under a simple light
microscope. (By Robert Hooke (Micrographia) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons; Cork
Micrographia Hooke.png)
Cell Theory
By the early 1800s, scientists had observed the cells of many different organisms. These
observations led two German scientists, named Theodor Schwann and Matthias Jakob
Schleiden, to propose that cells are the basic building blocks of all living things. Around 1850,
a German doctor named Rudolf Virchow was studying cells under a microscope when he
happened to see them dividing and forming new cells. He realized that living cells produce new
cells through division. Based on this realization, Virchow proposed that living cells arise only
from other living cells.
The ideas of all three scientists — Schwann, Schleiden, and Virchow — led to cell theory, which
is one of the fundamental theories unifying all of biology. Cell theory states that:
 All organisms are made of one or more cells.

 All the life functions of organisms occur within cells.
 All cells come from already existing cells.
Seeing Inside Cells

Starting with Robert Hooke in the 1600s, the microscope opened up an amazing new world —
the world of life at the level of the cell. As microscopes continued to improve, more discoveries
were made about the cells of living things. However, by the late 1800s, light microscopes had
reached their limit. Objects much smaller than cells, including the structures inside cells, were
too small to be seen with even the strongest light microscope.
Then, in the 1950s, a new type of microscope was invented. Called the electron microscope, it
used a beam of electrons instead of light to observe extremely small objects. With an electron
microscope, scientists could finally see the tiny structures inside cells. In fact, they could even
see individual molecules and atoms. The electron microscope had a huge impact on biology. It
allowed scientists to study organisms at the level of their molecules and led to the emergence
of the field of molecular biology. With the electron microscope, many more cell discoveries
were made. The figure below shows how the cell structures called organelles appear when
scanned by an electron microscope.
5.2.35.2.3
Figure : An electron microscope produced this image of the structures inside a cell.
(Dartmouth Electron Microscope Facility, Dartmouth College [Public domain]; via
Wikimedia.org; Chlamydomonas TEM 02.jpg)
Structures Shared By All Cells

Although cells are diverse, all cells have certain parts in common. These parts include a plasma
membrane, cytoplasm, ribosomes, and DNA.
1. The plasma membrane (also called the cell membrane) is a thin coat of lipids that
surrounds a cell. It forms the physical boundary between the cell and its environment,
so you can think of it as the “skin” of the cell.
2. Cytoplasm refers to all of the cellular material inside the plasma membrane. The
Cytoplasm is made up of a watery substance called cytosol and contains other cell
structures such as ribosomes.
3. Ribosomes are structures in the cytoplasm where proteins are made.
4. DNA is a nucleic acid found in cells. It contains the genetic instructions that cells need
to make proteins.
These parts are common to all cells, from organisms as different as bacteria and human beings.
How did all known organisms come to have such similar cells? The similarities show that all life
on Earth has a common evolutionary history.
Summary
 Cells are the basic units of structure and function of living things. They are the smallest
units that can carry out the processes of life.
 The first cells from an organism (cork) were observed by Hooke in the 1600s. Soon after,
microscopist van Leeuwenhoek observed many other living cells.
 In the early 1800s, Schwann and Schleiden theorized that cells are the basic building
blocks of all living things. Around 1850, Virchow saw cells dividing and added that living
cells arise only from other living cells. These ideas led to cell theory, which states that
all organisms are made of cells, all life functions occur in cells, and all cells come from
other cells.
 It wasn't until the 1950s that scientists could see what was inside the cell. The invention
of the electron microscope allowed them to see organelles and other structures smaller
than cells.
 There is variation in cells, but all cells have a plasma membrane, cytoplasm, ribosomes,
and DNA. These similarities show that all life on Earth has a common ancestor in the
distant past.

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NAME: DIZON, Dietrich J.

Figure : (By N IAID/NIH (NIAID Flickr's photostream) [Public

 All organisms are made of one or more cells.

Seeing Inside Cells

Structures Shared By All Cells

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