The Cellular Basis of Life  All living things are made of cells

What is a CELL?  Cells are the basic units of structure

- Cells are the basic building blocks of all and function in living things
living things  New cells are produced from
- Provide structure, take in nutrients and preexisting cells
convert those nutrients to energy, and carry
out many other specialized functions
- Contain several organelles – specialized
structures that perform certain tasks within
the cell

DISCOVERY OF THE CELL

In 1665, Robert Hooke improved the
design of an existing compound microscope
and observed a cork specimen (a plant species)
 It appeared to him as thousands of
empty chambers he called “cells”
because they reminded him of cells in
a monastery
 Hooke’s drawings of cork cells and his
microscope
 Published in his book Micrographia in
1665

In the 1680s, Anton van

Leeuwenhoek (pronounced lay-vuhn-huk)
was the first to discover single-celled
organisms by studying pond water and the
plaque of teeth using a single-lensed
microscope.
 He called the bacteria and protozoa he
observed “animalcules”

CELL THEORY
Later discoveries by other scientists
led to the fundamental concept of biology
called cell theory.
Cell Theory states: