 Hi everybody, Dr. O. In this video I want to cover two more historical figures. So we have Anton or Anthony Van Luenhoek who just quickly is credited with creating the microscope that was first able to visualize microbes. And then we have Robert Hook and you'll see that he's kind of the father of the origin of the cell theory. So we'll dive in a little more detail there, but that's kind of the basics of these two. So this here is Anthony Van Luenhoek and let me go ahead and show you his microscope. That's more important. So this looks like nothing, but you have to understand this guy. He was not a scientist. He was not educated. I believe he was a janitor and ran a dry good store. I think they called it a haberdashery, but he was a master at grinding lenses. So this is an example of a simple microscope. There's just a single ball-like lens in the center of that. But we don't know exactly for sure, but the magnification on his microscopes was probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 270 to 400x, which 400x is as far as we can get on our compound microscopes today without using immersion oil. So pretty amazing. So he was not... I want to make sure it's very clear. He was not the first person to create microscopes. There were scientists and quote-unquote experts that were designing microscopes, but no one could reproduce what he did. So I find it kind of interesting. So we'll compare him to Robert Hook and he was actually these national countries and scientific organizations sent him the task to create microscopes. And he did create very good microscopes, but he couldn't reproduce what Anthony Van Luenhoek was doing. So this guy, again, it's also kind of interesting that he wasn't a scientist because scientists of the day were doing some strange things, right? They were doing tests on ground unicorn horn and things like that. So sometimes it's better to kind of look at things from the outside. So he was a different character. When he used one of these microscopes, he would leave the specimen on it and he would just make another one. So he made hundreds of these microscopes. He never let anyone touch them. He never let anyone use his favorites. So he would basically use them and then make a new one and these kind of things. But imagine being this man that every time he looked through his microscope, he was the first human being to see it. We had no idea what was going on around us until he showed up. As far as he first saw things like animals or what he called animal cules or wretched beasts in rainwater. He loved looking at tooth scrapings. He was the first person to ever see a human capillary or at least capillary beds. He discovered human sperm. So anytime he looked through his microscope, he was probably the first human being to ever see it. And that's pretty amazing. So that's Anthony Van Luenhoek and his simple microscopes. Just remember, he did not invent the microscope. He invented the first microscope that could actually see the microbial world. All right. And then we do have Robert Hook. So here's Robert Hook's microscope, much more complicated. This is a compound microscope like the ones that we use in lab. Remember compound microscopes have multiple lenses in them. And he could see amazing things, but nowhere near what Anthony Van Luenhoek. Let me show you an example of what he saw. So this would be some cork cells that he was looking at. So he is giving credit for being the father of the cell theories. Let me tell you the two parts of the cell theory. The cell theory says, number one, all living things are composed of cells. And number two, all cells come from preexisting cells. So this might not sound like a very big deal, but you have to understand the time they were in. They didn't believe this. Well, I'll do a separate video about this. But they believed that life came from nothing, came from a life force, not from preexisting life. So he's given credit for being the father of the cell theory. But I also have to make it clear that the cell theory was not proven by him. He discovered cells. He called themselves, these little boxes. This is cork, actually. So he discovered the cell or named the cell. But the cell theory itself was proven much later. But I still want you to know that he's the father of the cell theory. So that's Anthony Van Luenhoek, the creator of the first microscope that could see the microbial world, and Robert Hook, the father or originator of the beginning, at least, of the cell theory. I hope this helps. Have a wonderful day. Be blessed.