Chapter 2:

Life in a Cell
Presented By: Group 2 General Biology
 Lesson 2.1:
The Cell and Its
Beginning
Earliest Microscopic
Observations
In 1661, King Charles II of
England commissioned a
microscopic examination of the
natural world. The focus of the
royal interest at that time was on
insect anatomy.
However, an English scientist
named Robert Hooke (1635-
1703) was fascinated with the
microscopic world.
 Robert Hooke improved the design of the existing
compound microscope in 1665. His microscope used
three lenses and a stage light, which illuminated and
enlarged the specimens. He also devised/invented one
of the earliest microscopes that could magnify every
sort of material he could find at that time such as glass,
crystal, the point of a pin, the body of a flea, and even
frozen urine.
 Antonie van
Leeuwenhoek(1663-1723) - a
Dutch naturalist, was credited to
be the first to study magnified
cells. His interest came when he
got hold of a copy of Hooke’s
Micrographia, and from then on
devised his own microscope to
study biological specimens.
He studied many specimens
such as blood, semen, feces,
pepper, and tartar, among
others. With his ability to see
microscopic cells through his
invention of the microscope,
he was the first to observe
living cells.
The Cell Theory
 The cell theory
-cell theory is a scientific theory first
formulated in the mid-19th century, that
organisms are made up of cells, that they
are the basic structural/organizational
unit of all organisms, and that all cells
come from pre-existing cells.
Hooke’s Discovery About
the cell from a dead cork
did not create an
immediate impact during
his time.
Hooke and Leeuwenhoek continued to make
observations nevertheless. But it had taken
200 more years before it became generally
accepted that all living things are made of
cells, which can reproduce themselves to
perpetuate life. It was because microscopes
were so rare for another 200 years from their
time.
 Matthias Jakob
Schleiden(1804-1881)
In 1838, German botanist
Matthias Jakob Schleiden
(1804-1881) focused his
interests in the study of plant
cells.
 Theodor Schwann
(1810-1862)
In 1839,German Theodor
Schwann examined the
animal cells.
 Rudolf Carl Virchow
In 1858, German physician
Rudolf Carl Virchow proposed a
third tenet in the cell theory
stating that all cells come from
other cells through the process of
cell division.
 CELL THEORY
1. All organisms are composed of one or more cells.
2. Cells are the smallest and basic units of structure
and function in organisms.
3. Cells arise only from previously existing cells
Fig. 2-4
 Though science has presented that
multicellular organism evolved from
unicellular ancestors, the most basic
questions include where the first living cell
came from and how it came about.
 Aleksandr Oparin
A Russian Biochemist, proposed
that organic molecules might have
been assembled in Earth's Primitive
Atmosphere in the presence of
strong energy
 Stanley Miller
American chemist,, designed an
experiment to test Oparin’s hypothesis
by placing a mixture of inorganic
compounds in a closed system,
resembling a strong reducing atmosphere
of the primtive Earth.
 -The organic chemical evolution hypothesis states that the first forms of true
living cells have evolved from protocells. Protocells are hypothesized to have
been formed by the polymerization of organic molecules in heated rocks or in
day.
Through the accumulation of nucleic acids and proteins with catalytic
activities, the primitive protocell evolved over billions of years into a self-
replicating system that gave rise to the first true living cell. This was them
followed by biological evolution. Today, the modern understanding of a cell
is that it is the smallest unit displaying all the properties of life. Living cells
are abuzz with hundreds of simultaneous activities to carry out their life-
sustaining duties to keep you alive.
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