How Did Scientists Discover What Was Inside Cells?
Cells are the basic unit of life. The British scientist Robert Hooke was probably one of the first to realise that human beings and other living organisms are all made up from cells. In 1665, he used a very simple microscope to look at the cells in the cork from a tree. He noticed tiny repeating shapes inside the cork and he called these shapes cells. With his very basic microscope, he could not see what was inside. This was discovered by scientists who lived much later. Another British scientist, Robert Brown used a more powerful microscope to look at cells and discovered the cell nucleus. It was not until the twentieth century that an invention called the electron microscope allowed scientists all of the world to see the inside of cells in detail. This microscope is very powerful and reveals the full detail of organelles such as the mitochondria, the chloroplasts and the cell membrane.
