The biologist I chose to report on is Antony van Leeuwenhoek. I
chose to report on him because he made many great microscopic
discoveries. Those discoveries include bacteria, free-living and
parasitic microscopic protist, sperm cells, blood cells, and many
Leeuwenhoek was born on October 24, 1632, in Delft. His
mother's family were brewers and his father was a basket-maker.
Antony was taught at Warmond and lived with his uncle in
Benthuizen. He got his first job in a linen-draper's shop, in 1648. In
1654, he moved back to Delft, where he lived the rest of his life. He
set up a drapery business for a while, but also worked as a surveyor,
wine assayer, and a minor city official. In 1676, he was the trustee of
a famous painter named Jan Vermeer. In 1668, Leeuwenhoek
learned to grind lens and used them to make simple microscopes.
Robert Hooke was his inspiration to use microscopes.
Ten out of five hundred of Leeuwenhoek's scopes have survived
up until today. His microscopes were basically a strong magnifying
glass and not compound like the ones used today. Leeuwenhoek's
scopes were composed of only one lens, mounted in a tiny hole, in
the brass plate. The brass plate served as the base, also.
Whatever was being viewed was placed on a sharp point, which was
in front of the lens. To focus the object, two screws were turned.
The entire scope was 3-4 inches long, and very difficult to use.
Leeuwenhoek is often called, "The inventor of the microscope,"
when in truth the compound microscope was invented many years
The old compound microscope were not very good for viewing
because they could only enlarge 20-30 times the original size.
Leeuwenhoek's scopes however could magnify up to 200 times and
more clearly then any other scopes at the time. Because
Leeuwenhoek's scopes could magnify so well and clear many of his
...