Discuss_the_Impact_of_Technology_on_the_Development_of_Cell_Theory

The increased sophistication of technology over the years has significantly impacted on the development of the cell theory. One such example is the invention of the microscope; it has primarily affected our understanding of cells. The development of microscopes has in turn developed the cell theory which we are aware of today. Until the last decade of the 16th century, microscopes did not exist, so cells had never been seen and so the living world had not been considered at a cellular level. Before the introduction of microscopes, one of the accepted views was the theory of spontaneous regeneration, which predicted that living creatures could grow from non-living material. In the late 1500s, Hans and Zacharias Janssen invented the first compound microscope. These microscopes were able to magnify objects up to a factor of 9; they were held by hand and formed the basis of the first compound microscopes. By the second half of the 17th century, microscopes were powerful enough to magnify living tissue enough to be visible to the human eye. In 1665 Robert Hooke produced the first recorded publication to describe observations of living tissue using a microscope. His findings, however, were not accepted as scientists were skeptical about the "artificial images" created due to the low quality lenses which distorted images and separated colours. In 1824, when the first compound optics microscopes were in use, microscopes began to be acknowledged as useful scientific instruments. The lenses of these optics microscopes were achromatic and no longer produced distorted images. They also incorporated powerful light sources and focussing screws to increase the precision of the instruments in general. With the improved technology, scientists became less skeptical of the "artificial images" and so observations were accepted as valid scientific evidence. In the early 19th century, various biologists pointed to the central importance of the cell. In 1938, Schleiden and Schwann began promoting the ideas of what was to become known as the cell theory. The development of the light and electron microscope has had a large impact on the cell theory. It has improved the magnification and resolution when viewing a cell. The light microscope has enabled scientists to quickly view living cells, where as the electron has a high magnification and has allowed small objects such as molecules to be viewed. In 1933, with the development of the electron microscope, cells could be seen at a greater magnification. This revealed that there were both procaryotic and eucaryotic cells. The cell theory, however, has raised exceptions such as viruses. Overall, the benefits of technology on the development of cell theory strongly outweigh the downsides. Without the development of microscopes, we would have never known that cells are the basic structure of all living things. The development of the cell theory has helped us understand cells to a great extent, and has assisted us in curing many diseases which were thought to have been incurable in the past.