Father of Microbiology

[rainbow]

Why was Leeuwenhoek called the "Father of Microbiology"?

Edited August 12, 2010 by rainbow

[jimmydasaint]

This answer may suffice mate. However, a quick websearch would have given you a good answer as well. People lived in times where they believed that old underwear or clothes would, under the correct conditions generate mice or flies by 'spontaneous generation.'

 

Recipe for bees:

Kill a young bull, and bury it in an upright position so that its horns protrude from the ground. After a month, a swarm of bees will fly out of the corpse.

 

Jan Baptista van Helmont’s recipe for mice:

Place a dirty shirt or some rags in an open pot or barrel containing a few grains of wheat or some wheat bran, and in 21 days, mice will appear. There will be adult males and females present, and they will be capable of mating and reproducing more mice.

 

Spontaneous

 

 

 

Animalcules

Leeuwenhoek was also distinguished by an insatiable curiosity to observe just about anything that would fit under his lenses, and he made careful, detailed observations of what he saw. Through these observations, Leeuwenhoek succeeded in making some of the most important contributions in the history of biology. He discovered microscopic organisms (such as bacteria, protists, nematodes, rotifers), which he dubbed “animalcules”, as well as sperm cells, blood cells, and muscle fibers. Leeuwenhoek’s discovery or microorganisms, along with experiments done by Francesco Redi, Lazzaro Spallanzani and Louis Pasteur, helped put to rest the erroneous belief in spontaneous generation (living things commonly arising from nonliving matter) (Dobell 1960).

 

 

 

Read more at Suite101: Anthony van Leeuwenhoek: Self-made Scientist, Father of Microbiology & Microscope Inventor http://microbiology.suite101.com/article.cfm/anthony_van_leeuwenhoek#ixzz0wPEST9Qn

Father of Micro

Edited August 12, 2010 by jimmydasaint