Antony van Leeuwenhoek essays

Antony van Leeuwenhoek essays 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 mothers 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-drapers 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 Leeuwenhoeks scopes have survived up until today. His microscopes were basically a strong magnifying glass and not compound like the ones used today. Leeuwenhoeks 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. Leeuwenhoeks scopes however could magnify up to 200 times and more clearly then any other scopes at the time. Because Leeuwenhoeks scopes could magnify so well and clear many of his ...