The pandemic has been experienced across the entire world and we are racing against time to find a medicine that will help us end the threat. In today’s world, we take most of the technology and instruments for granted, but we should pause and imaging dealing with the issue before the invention of the microscope. Van Leeuwenhoek, the seventeenth-century scientist, opened a whole new world to our scientific eyes with his invention.
Key Takeaways:
- Often called the father of microbiology, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek was the first person to ever see a bacterium.
- Despite a lack of formal education, Van Leeuwenhoek’s work was eventually verified by both religious and scientific societies.
- Due to a cloth merchant trying to assess the quality of a thread, the microscopic world of bacteria and then eventually viruses were discovered.
“Despite van Leuwenhoek’s prowess as a lens-maker, even he could not see viruses. They are about 1/100th the size of bacteria, much too small to be visualized by light microscopes, which because of the physics of light can magnify only thousands of times.”
