Who Coined the Term Cell and How?

Answer:

Hooke coined the term ‘Cell’ in the 1660s after looking through a primitive microscope at a thinly cut piece of cork. An array of walled boxes reminded him of the tiny rooms, or cellula, occupied by monks. It stems from the Latin cella, meaning ‘small space.’ Hooke also observed mould, bluish in colour, found on leather.

The cell discovery would not have been possible if not for advancements in the microscope. This microscope used three lenses and a stage light, which illuminated and enlarged the specimens. Hooke explains the wonders of this previously unknown world in his book Micrographia.

“I could very plainly perceive it to be all perforated and porous, much like a Honey-comb, but its pores were not regular these pores or cells. Hooke wrote in his book Micrographia of the cork’s cells. “I had never encountered a Writer or Person referring to me before.” 

In 1665, Hooke could not have imagined that his discovery of the cell would profoundly influence science. The cell discovery gave us a deep understanding of the building blocks of all living organisms, making it possible to develop medical technology and treatments. Scientists are currently researching personalised medicine, where we can grow stem cells from our cells and use them to understand disease processes—all of this and more developed from a single observation of the cell in a cork.

As a result of Hooke’s discovery, we now know that cells are the minor units of life — the basis of cell theory.