Antonie van Leeuwenhoek (Technological Advances)

ANTONIE VAN LEEUWENHOEK (Technological Advances)

Progress in science depends on progress in technology. Dutch draper Antonie van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723) needed to closely examine the threads in his materials and found his magnifying glasses inadequate. So he began experimenting with making better lenses, improving the microscope. He was the first to report seeing single-celled organisms, which he called animalcules, from the Latin for "little animals." Thus he is sometimes called the "Father of Microbiology." Using his improved microscopes, he also observed muscle fibers, and blood circulating in the capillaries, among other things. He never wrote a book, but the 560 or so letters he sent to the Royal Society in London (a fellowship of scientists) remain a primary source for scholars today. But it wasn't until the 1950s that the techniques he used in making superior lenses were rediscovered.

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(Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons; CTTO)