Imagine trying to cope with a pandemic like Covid-19 in a world where microscopic life is unknown. Before the 17th century, humans were limited to what they saw in their own two eyes. But then a Dutch’s clothing jerk has changed everything.
His name was Antonie Van Leeuwenhoek, and he lived from 1632 to 1723. Although not treated with science, the greatest forms of microscopic life and is Is now known as “father of microbiology.”
Watch ‘Animalcules’ with a ‘Small See-Er’
Leeuwenhoek opens the door to a wide, previously invisible world. Collection of J. Veolje / Wellume,, Cc by
Leeuwenhoek did not walk to distinguish germs. However, he tried to evaluate the quality of the thread. He developed a method of making lenses By heating thin-shaped filaments to make small spheres. His lenses in such high quality he saw things helpless.
It helped him train his microscope – literally, “a little se-er” – in an unexpected kingdom: things, including organisms, shorter than the naked eye. He is the First to imagine red blood cells, blood flow to capillaries and sperm.
Drawings from a letter to Leeuwenhoek in 1683 depict bacteria in the human mouth. Huydang2910,, CC By-SA
Leeuwenhoek also first person to see a bacteria – And the importance of this discovery for microbiology and medicine is not nearly overstated. However he did not hesitate to proclaim his findings, because of his lack of formal education. Eventually, friends won him to do so.
He wrote, “When can I know anything weird, I think it my duty to put my discovery on paperSo all the experienced people will let it know. “He guided his curiosity and joy to discover, declaring” I have no notice to those who speak Why a lot of problems and what is its good? “
When he reported the imaginative “animals” (small animals) swimming in a drop of water in the pond, the members of the scientific community asked his trust. After his findings corroborated by reliable religious and science authoritiesThey were published, and in 1680 he was invited to join the Royal Society of London, then the principal scientific body of the world.
Leeuwenhoek is not the microscopist of the world. In England, his contemporary Robert Hooke is united in the term “Cell” To describe the basic unit of life and published his “micrographia,” with an unrealistic detailed images of insects and others, which became the first scientific trade. However, Hooke did not recognize bacteria.
Despite Leuwenhek’s youth as a lens maker, though he could not see viruses. About 1/100 bacterial size, very little visible to light microscopes, due to light physics can only extend thousands of times. Viruses cannot be imagined until 1931 in Inventing electron microscopeswhich can extend millions.
An image of hepatitis virus in courtesy of electron microscope. Eh cook, Jr./CDC via Associated Press
A wide, previously invisible world
Leeuwenhoek and his heirs opened, far, the greatest kingdom of life. For example, all the world’s bacteria More than people over 1,100 times And we are more than an unpredictable margin. Have fossil evidence that Bacteria is one of the first forms of life in the worldDating back over 3 billion years, and now thought that the houses on the planet 5 non-loly (1 followed by 30 zero) bacteria.
Some species of Bacteria caused illnesseslike cholera, syphilis and throat; while Some, known as extremophileessave the temperature beyond boiling and freeze points, from the long arrivals around the deepest points of the ocean. Also, the number of harmless bacterial cells and our bodies likely to exceed people.
Viruses, which include Coronavirus SARS-COV-2 causes of COVID-19, Outnumber bacteria at a factor 100, meaning there is more of them in the world than the stars of the universe. They also, found somewhere, from the upper atmosphere of the depths of the ocean.
A humanitovirus man imagery 14, one of many viruses caused by common cold. Protein spikes are white for clarity. Thomas Splettstoesser,, CC By-SA
It’s amazing, Viruses may not qualify as living organisms. They can only be replicated by simply infection of other cells in organisms, where they hijack cellular systems to make copies of themselves, sometimes causing deaths of infected cells.
It is important to remember that germs such as bacteria and viruses are more than the cause of illness, and many are important in life. For example, Bacteria synthesize vitamin B12If the majority of living organisms do not make DNA.
Also, viruses cause diseases such as common cold, influenza and coviden-19, but they also have role in transfer of species between species, which can help increase genetic variation and propel evolution. TODAY Researchers use viruses to treat diseases such as cancer.
The understanding of scientists in germs increases a long way from Leeuwenhoek, including the development of antibiotics against bacteria and vaccines against viruses including SARS-COV-2.
But it was Leewenhoek who first opened the eyes of the people in the wide microscopic microscopic in life, a discovery that continued to change the world.
by Richard GendermanProfessor of Chancellor Medicine, Liberal Arts, and Philanthropy, Indiana University. This article was republished from The conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the Original article.
