5.2 Discovery of Cells and Cell Theory - Biology LibreTexts

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5.2: Discovery of Cells and

Cell Theory
Last updated: Sep 4, 2021
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Suzanne Wakim & Mandeep Grewal

Butte College
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! A Big Blue Cell
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.
Figure 5.2.1: Healthy human T-cell
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.
Figure 5.2.2: Robert Hooke sketched these

cork cells as they appeared under a simple
light microscope.
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 the

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 cell biology. With the electron
microscope, many more cell discoveries
were made. Figure 5.2.3 shows how the cell
structures called organelles appear when
scanned by an electron microscope.
Chlamydomonas TEM
Figure 5.2.3: An electron microscope

produced this image of the structures inside a
cell.
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
phospholipids 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.
Review
1. Describe cells.
2. Explain how cells were discovered.
3. Outline how cell theory developed.
4. Identify structures shared by all cells.
5. True or False. Cork is not a living
organism.
6. True or False. Some organisms are
made of only one cell.
7. True or False. Ribosomes are found
outside of the cytoplasm of a cell.
8. Proteins are made on _____________ .
9. What are the differences between a light
microscope and an electron microscope?
10. The first microscopes were made around
A. 1965
B. 1665
C. 1950
D. 1776
11. Which of these scientists made each of
the following discoveries? (Anton van
Leeuwenhoek; Robert Hooke; Rudolf
Virchow)
A. Observed some of the first cells and
first used the term “cell”
B. Observed the first human cells
C. Observed cells dividing
12. Robert Hooke sketched what looked like
honeycombs, or repeated circular or
square units when he observed plant
cells under a microscope.
A. What is each unit?
B. Of the shared parts of all cells, what
makes up the outer surface of each
unit?
C. Of the shared parts of all cells, what
makes up the inside of each unit?
Explore More
To learn more about cell theory, and its
history, watch the video below.
The wacky history of cell t…
Attributions
1. Healthy human T-cell by NIAID Flickr's
photostream, public domain via
Wikimedia Commons
2. Cork Micrograph by Robert Hook, public
domain via Wikimedia Commons
3. Chlamydomonas by Dartmouth Electron
Microscope Facility, Dartmouth College,
released into the public domain via
Wikimedia Commons
4. Text adapted from Human Biology by
CK-12 licensed CC BY-NC 3.0
This page titled 5.2: Discovery of Cells and

Cell Theory is shared under a CK-12 license
and was authored, remixed, and/or curated
by Suzanne Wakim & Mandeep Grewal via
source content that was edited to the style
and standards of the LibreTexts platform; a
detailed edit history is available upon
request.
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5.2: Discovery of Cells and

Last updated: Sep 4, 2021

!5.1: Case St… 5.3: Variatio… "

Submit Adoption Report Donate

Suzanne Wakim & Mandeep Grewal

& Table of contents

! A Big Blue Cell

What is this incredible object? Would it

Figure 5.2.1: Healthy human T-cell

If you look at a living matter with a

Soon after Robert Hooke discovered cells in

Figure 5.2.2: Robert Hooke sketched these

The ideas of all three scientists — Schwann,

All organisms are made of one or more

Seeing Inside Cells

Then, in the 1950s, a new type of the

Figure 5.2.3: An electron microscope

Structures Shared By All Cells

1. The plasma membrane (also called the

These parts are common to all cells, from

The wacky history of cell t…

This page titled 5.2: Discovery of Cells and

!5.1: Case St… 5.3: Variatio… "

Was this article helpful?

The LibreTexts libraries are Powered by NICE CXone

, How can we help you? !+S

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