II.NAME 3 BIOLOGISTS WHO EMPLOYED THE MICROSCOPE IN THEIR WORK.

DESCRIBE BRIEFLY THEIR WORK/CONTRIBUTION TO BOTANY.

Robert Hooke (1635-1703)
No portrait survives of Robert Hooke. His name is somewhat obscure today, due in part to the enmity
of his famous, influential, and extremely vindictive colleague, Sir Isaac Newton. Yet Hooke was
perhaps the single greatest experimental scientist of the seventeenth century. His interests knew no
bounds, ranging from physics and astronomy, to chemistry, biology, and geology, to architecture and
naval technology; he collaborated or corresponded with scientists as diverse as Christian
Huygens, Antony van Leeuwenhoek, Christopher Wren, Robert Boyle, and Isaac Newton. Among
other accomplishments, he invented the universal joint, the iris diaphragm, and an early prototype of
the respirator; invented the anchor escapement and the balance spring, which made more accurate
clocks possible; served as Chief Surveyor and helped rebuild London after the Great Fire of 1666;
worked out the correct theory of combustion; devised an equation describing elasticity that is still
used today ("Hooke's Law"); assisted Robert Boyle in studying the physics of gases; invented or
improved meteorological instruments such as the barometer, anemometer, and hygrometer; and so
on. He was the type of scientist that was then called a virtuoso -- able to contribute findings of major
importance in any field of science. It is not surprising that he made important contributions to biology
and to paleontology.
Relatively little is known about Robert Hooke's life. He was born on July 18, 1635, at Freshwater, on
the Isle of Wight, the son of a churchman. He was apparently largely educated at home by his father,
although he also served an apprenticeship to an artist. He was able to enter Westminster School at
the age of thirteen, and from there went to Oxford, where some of the best scientists in England were
working at the time. Hooke impressed them with his skills at designing experiments and building
equipment, and soon became an assistant to the chemist Robert Boyle. In 1662 Hooke was named
Curator of Experiments of the newly formed Royal Society of London -- meaning that he was
responsible for demonstrating new experiments at the Society's weekly meetings. He later became
Gresham Professor of Geometry at Gresham College, London, where he had a set of rooms and
where he lived for the rest of his life. His health deteriorated over the last decade of his life, although
one of his biographers wrote that "He was of an active, restless, indefatigable Genius even almost to
the last." He died in London on March 3, 1703.
Hooke's reputation in the history of biology largely rests on his book Micrographia, published in 1665.
Hooke devised the compound microscope and illumination system shown above, one of the best
such microscopes of his time, and used it in his demonstrations at the Royal Society's meetings. With
it he observed organisms as diverse as insects, sponges, bryozoans, foraminifera,
and bird feathers. Micrographia was an accurate and detailed record of his observations, illustrated
with magnificent drawings, such as the flea shown below, which Hooke described as "adorned with a
curiously polished suite of sable Amour, neatly jointed. . ." It was a best-seller of its day. Some
readers ridiculed Hooke for paying attention to such trifling pursuits: a satirist of the time poked fun at
him as "a Sot, that has spent 2000 £ in Microscopes, to find out the nature of Eels in Vinegar, Mites in
Cheese, and the Blue of Plums which he has subtly found out to be living creatures." More
complimentary was the reaction of the diarist and government official Samuel Pepys, who stayed up
till 2:00 AM one-night reading Micrographia, which he called "the most ingenious book that I ever read
in my life."
 Robert Brown (1773-1858)

Robert Brown, a botanist, collected, studied and classified thousands of plant flora he collected from
the Flinders expedition to Australia in 1801 – 1805. He described Brownian motion, the movement of
small particles in solution, which is named after him and he described and named the plant cell
nuclei. He was the first to recognize the difference between gymnosperms (conifers) and
angiosperms (flowering plants). Robert Brown attended the University of Edinburgh where he studied
medicine but he soon was distracted by a keen interest for botany. While he did not take a degree,
Brown showed an interest for natural history. During his time at university, Brown attended lectures
held by John Walker, a respected natural historian and he also began corresponding with and
collecting for William Witheron, a leading botanist of the time. Brown discovered “Alopecurus alpinus”,
a new species of grass and he wrote his first botanical paper “The Botanical History of Angus” in
1792.

Brown published “Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae et Insulae Van-Diemen” (Prodromus of the
Flora of New Holland and Van Diemen’s Land) in 1810, based on the specimens he found on the
expedition to Australia. The work documented over 2000 plant species, more than half of which were
new discoveries. Brown also published the long titled “Observations, systematical and geographical,
on the herbarium collected by Professor Christian Smith, in the vicinity of the Congo” in 1818, and
around four years later, was elected as a Fellow of the Linnean Society. In 1827, Brown observed,
using a microscope, that small particles ejected from pollen grains suspended in water executed a
kind of continuous and jittery movement, this was named “Brownian motion”. He later observed the
same movements in inorganic matter and deduced that the movement was not due to some life-
giving force. This random movement of particles suspended in a fluid is now called after him. He read
a paper to the Linnean Society in 1831 and published the paper in 1833, naming the nucleus part of a
plant cell. While the nucleus of the cell was observed by Leeuwenhoek in 1682, it was Brown who
named it the “cell nucleus” and gave credit to Franz Bauer’s drawings and observations of this feature
in plant cells. Brown was the first to recognize the difference between gymnosperms (conifers,
cycads) and angiosperms (flowering plants). Angiosperms have seeds that are enclosed within an
ovary (usually a fruit), while gymnosperms have no flowers or fruits, and have unenclosed or “naked”
seeds on the surface of scales or leaves. From the year 1849 to 1853 Brown was the president of the
Linnean Society. Brown was the first Keeper of the Botanical Department for the Natural History
Department of the British Museum. He held this position until his death on the 10 th of June in 1858,
aged 84. As one of his legacies in botany, his name is credited in the Australian herb genus
“Brunonia” and other Australian species he discovered during his stay there.
 Matthias Jacob Schleiden (1804–1881)
He was a German botanist and co-founder of the cell theory, along with Theodor Schwann and
Rudolf Virchow. This theory speaks of the existence of cells in plants. Schleiden was born in
Hamburg, Germany, in 1804. Although he studied law, he dedicated his life to botany, his real
passion. He taught at the University of Jena and Dorpat University. Schleiden was one of the first
scientists of the time to accept the theories of the evolution of Charles Darwin. Schleiden helped
popularize these theories among his colleagues. His greatest contribution to science was to have
formulated, together with his compatriot Theodor Schwann, the cellular theory of organisms.
According to his theory, plants are composed of small units called cells; later it would be proved that
all living organisms are composed of cells. Subsequently, his theory of Phyto genesis spoke of the
importance of the division of cells for the growth of plants. Although his initial approach was incorrect,
this theory was the basis for future embryology. During these years, the famous naturalists Alexander
von Humboldt and Robert Brown also lived in Berlin. Schleiden worked in the laboratory of Johanes
P. Müller, where he met Theodor Schwann. Schleiden preferred to study the structure of plants under
the microscope. While a professor of botany at the University of Jena in 1838, he wrote “Contributions
to our knowledge of Phyto genesis"; in that book he declared that all parts of the organisms of the
plant were composed of cells. In this way, Schleiden became the first to formulate as a principle of
biology what was until then an informal belief. This principle can be compared in importance to atomic
theory in chemistry. In addition, he worked intensively to produce other notorious publications. In
1839 he obtained his doctorate in Jena. During this period, his lectures and technical scientific works
covered a wide range of topics; his classes attracted enthusiastic audiences and his numerous
articles appeared in highly respected scientific journals. During 1850 he accepted the nomination as
titular professor of botany in Jena. He also received many honors from various societies; but despite
his success, he decided to leave Jena in 1862. His combative personality probably contributed to his
decision. Schleiden was one of the first German biologists to accept the theory of the evolution of
Charles Darwin. In 1863 he became professor of botany at Dorpat University. Schleiden also
recognized the importance of the nucleus of the cell, discovered in 1831 by Robert Brown, and felt its
connection with cell division. The scientist concluded that all parts of the plant are composed of cells
and that an embryonic plant organism could be created from a single cell.

It is the theory, now universally accepted, that all organisms are composed of cells. Cells are the
basic unit of structure in all organisms, and also the basic unit of reproduction. The microscope
helped discover the cells in the seventeenth century; thanks to Hooke, the scientific study of cells
began. More than a century later, many debates about cells began. The cell theory was eventually
formulated in 1831. It is usually attributed to Schleiden and Schwann, but other scientists like Virchow
also contributed. In 1839, Schleiden suggested that every structural part of a plant was composed of
cells or by cell results. However, this was not an original idea of Schleiden. He declared this theory as
his own, although Dumortier had announced the same thing years before.

In 1839 Schwann states that, together with plants, animals are also composed of cells or the product
of cells. This meant a breakthrough in the field of biology, since until then very little was known about
animal structure compared to that of plants. From these conclusions about plants and animals, two of
the three principles of the cellular theory were postulated. In 1855, Virchow added the third postulate
of the theory: that all cells originate from existing cells.