History of cell

The basis of the cell theory states that every living organisms are composed of similar units
of organization, called cells. In order to improve our knowledge and understanding of cells,
the essay will address some key elements related to the history of the cells. These include
the formation of the first cell, the influence and work of scientists in relative to their
contribution to the recent development of cell biology.

It had been predicted by Aleksander Ivanovish Oparin, a British scientist that the first
acellular life was formed about 3 billion years ago and the first cellular life came about 2
billion years ago. His theory of the chemical evolution of life described the formation of the
first forms of life depending on the chemical changes of primitive Earth. The first living
organisms existed were prokaryote with cell structures similar to bacteria and all forms of
life are evolved from them. So, what work had certain scientists done to figure out the
evolution of cells?

In 1655, Robert Hooke, the natural philosopher and influencing scientist described the basic
unit of life as cell after his observation of cork under the microscope. In short, he looked at
the dead cell walls of cork tissues and noticed some pores in it. This was the time he
discovered plant cells and published a book named Micrographia. In 1674, Antony van
Leeuwenhoek used his own method to build a simple microscope by creating lenses with
highest magnification. Then he used it to observe different substances and as results, he
was the first person to witness and describe single-celled organisms such as bacteria,
protozoa and the algae Spirogyra. In 1840, Albrecht von Roelliker realized the presence of
sperm cells and egg cells and 16 years later, N. Pringsheim discovered how a sperm cell was
able to penetrate through an egg cell. Another notable founder of microbiology worth to
mention is Louis Pauster, who performed experiments by exposing chickens to weakened
form of disease to support his discoveries of the principles of vaccination. He also
demonstrated the role of bacteria in fermentation and how they could be killed through a
process called pasteurization. In 1858, Rudolf Virchow contributed to cell theory by arguing
that all cells arise from pre-existing cells.

In terms of the continuous progress in the study of cells, there had been an obvious
development in the understanding of cell biology. For instance, in 1838, Schleiden and
Schwann proposed one of their cell theories that cells were formed by free-cell formation,
similar to the formation of crystals. However, this statement was not true and had been
modified by Rudolf Virchow. The modern cell theory tells people that cells are formed from
division of other pre-existing cells. Our current understanding of the study of cell biology
includes: all known living things are made up of cells; the cell is structural and functional of
all living things; all cells are formed from division of other pre-existing cells and they carry
hereditary information to be passed along the generations.
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