A cell is the smallest unit of life that is classified as a living thing. The discovery of cells eventually led to the discovery of microorganisms such as bacteria and viruses, the invention of antibiotics to help fight disease, and ultimately founded the basis for what people know as medicine (“Hierarchy,” 2011). Robert Hooke, the man who suffered from smallpox at a young age and was not expected to live more than a few years, later grew up to attend the prestigious University of Oxford where he studied alongside famous scientists. Hooke made several important discoveries in the fields of science and medicine, including the invention of the microscope and the discovery of cells. As a result of Hooke’s discoveries, doctors today can understand how the body works on the smallest scale in order to treat diseases more efficiently.
Ever since he was a child, Hooke always found a way to exceed everyone’s expectations. Hooke was born on July 18, 1635, on the western end of Isle of Wright in England. In the article “Robert Hooke Biography,” Hooke was described as “a sickly child who was stricken with smallpox at an early age and was not expected to survive more than a few years” (2011). Due to his poor health, Hooke was allowed to spend his free time studying things that interested him like science and mechanics. Since he was forced to stay indoors for most of his childhood due to illness, Hooke found a source of enjoyment in disassembling and reassembling mechanical devices. Hooke possessed the ability to recreate mechanical toys on his own like working clocks and toy ships with fully functioning miniature guns (Farrell, 2006). Hooke not only had an interest in mechanics but also had a great amount of talent in that area as well.
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...pot, the universal joint which is still used in cars today, and the balance spring which is a main component in the watches we wear (2009). Most of Hooke’s major inventions are still around and used in every day life.
By 1665 Hooke was appointed professor of geometry at Gresham College. The standard policy at Gresham was to never marry, so Hooke remained single and lived in his Gresham apartment for the rest of his life. Hooke’s mental and physical health began to decline rapidly with the death of his niece, Grace, whom he lived with and was very fond of. After Grace passed, Hooke began to isolate himself and began writing bitterly (Farrell, 2006). Hooke finally passed away on March 3, 1703.
Hooke’s invention of the microscope and the discovery of cells ultimately laid down the basic building blocks for further discoveries in medicine and the study of disease.
Thomas's father, William Bateman, was an amateur antiquarian and pursued his pastime in accomplishing the excavation of a number of barrows on the family estate at Middleton. When William Bateman died in 1835 aged only 38, Thomas's upbringing and education were taken in hand by his grandfather. Thomas was educated at the non-conformist academy at Bootle, and from 1837 assisted in running the family estate, while in his spare time exploring the peakland, hunting, shooting, collecting flints and examining the many local ancient monuments. Bateman became a keen student of archaeology and read and was greatly influenced by Sir Richard Colt Hoare's seminal work Ancient Wiltshire.
Stage, film, and television dancer, director, and choreographer, was born Robert Louis Fosse in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Cyril Kingsley Fosse, a vaudeville entertainer turned salesman, and Sarah Alice Stanton (Grubb). At nine years of age, Fosse began classes in jazz, tap, and ballet at Chicago’s Academy of the Arts. Small and asthmatic, with a speech impediment that caused him to slur words, he later remarked that his early dance training stemmed from a need to overcompensate for his perceived “handicaps” (Gottfried). He was still a child when he headlined his own act—Bobby Fosse’s Le Petit Cabaret—tap dancing and telling jokes in local nightclubs.
"A Cell 's Life: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks." Issues in Science and Technology 26.4 (2010): 87. Academic OneFile. Web. 11 Nov. 2016.
In The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, multiple cell research studies involving Henrietta’s cells are described. Author Rebecca Skloot writes about Henrietta Lacks’ journey through her cervical cancer and how her cells changed the lives of millions long after her death. Skloot relates the history of cell research, including those studies which were successful and those that were not so successful. It is necessary for the author to include the achievements and disturbing practices of scientists throughout this history to inform readers and focus on the way Henrietta’s cells were used. Truth always matters to readers and Henrietta’s family deserves the truth.
In 1953, Francis Crick bragged to his fellow colleagues from the Cavendish Laboratory (Cambridge), claiming that he and his American partner, James Watson, had “discovered the secret of life.” The claim, made in a bar over a glass of alcohol, was not unusual from the pair. In fact, workers in the Cavendish often found Crick to be tactless, arrogant and noisy; one even went so far as to comment that he had “never seen Francis Crick in a modest mood.” Yet, a little over a century later, it is undeniable that Crick’s statement is true. Using information derived from a number of other scientists, primarily Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins of King’s College, the duo solved a puzzle that had plagued biologists for decades; they created a three-dimensional model of the DNA helix.
Woven throughout Thomas’ The Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher is a desire to link scientific phenomena with social behavior—to peruse the symbiotic relationship that we, as humans, are incapable or perhaps unwilling, to contemplate. Thomas’s ridicule of what he has identified as being a sort of human superiority complex is the needle—the mechanism—by which he is able to stitch together these two seemingly divided realms. He has sensed our inherent fear of “touch” and all that it embodies, simultaneously criticizing and enlightening us about our irrational, bizarre attitude towards the natural world. Our repudiation of “the inhuman” and our craving for control, according to Thomas, “[say] something about our century, our attitude toward life, our obsession with disease and death, our human chauvinism” (“Thoughts” 7).
In 1951, the first immortal cell line was created by a doctor at Johns Hopkins Hospital using tissue samples taken from a young, black woman named Henrietta Lacks. Her cells would come to be known as HeLa cells, and for a very long time, the owner of these cells was a mystery; even her family did not know about them. For years to come, her cells would be used in many important medical and scientific advancements. Over that time, HeLa cells would prove to be instrumental in developing a polio vaccine, gene mapping, and in vitro fertilization. They would even be sent to space to see how cells would react in zero gravity.
All fields of science affects the lives of many people, but the inventors are left out. Inventors make many lives more comfortable and convenient. George Edward Alcorn, Jr. was a not so well-known inventor, but he...
Hans Spemann was the next person to make an important discovery in 1902. He attempted to split apart a two-celled embryo of a salamander. He accomplished this task by using a baby’s hair to split th...
Cell biology has made a huge upsurge to the advancement and face of public health. In the novel The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, cell biologists at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland have researched Henrietta Lacks’ cervical cells to find a new life changing discovery: that her cells, other known as HeLa cells, would be everlasting and would replenish themselves and change the picture of medicine. Rebecca Skloot begins the compelling story of this scientific advancement of saving humanity from illness by analyzing the life of Henrietta. Throughout part one, life, Skloot reviews just how these cells were founded, how Henrietta’s life began and how Henrietta’s story continues to be told and researched today.
2). As a result, this scientific experiment changed the relationship of humankind and nature by foreseeing the modification of DNA of bacteria, yeast, plants, and animals to discover new medicines and to provide solutions for inherited diseases (Le Vine, 1999, p. 2).
The Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher by Lewis Thomas consists of short, insightful essays that offer the reader a different perspective on the world and on ourselves.
In 1835, a New York physician known as David Ireland in Europe Howe developed and developed the first truly realistic device for mass-producing strong head directly hooks. In a relatively brief time frame, directly hooks were being marketed by the half lb for the precise objective of momentarily attaching documents together.
William Harvey was a distinguished physician of the seventeenth century. Harvey was educated by some of the great scientists of his time and was highly knowledgeable of the scientist theories preceding his time. Harvey was greatly intrigued by the views of the ancient Aristotle and developed a number of his own ideas based on Aristotle’s theories. It was from Aristotle’s theory of the primacy of blood that allowed Harvey to make breakthroughs about circulation and generation of animals. His advancements greatly enhanced the study of anatomy. Harvey also revolutionized the means by which science was performed through the use of innovative, investigational techniques. William Harvey became a well-known name in science because he made profound accomplishments that changed the way scientists performed and the way people viewed the human body.
Antonie van Leeuwenhoek was a scientist and was best known for his contributions to microbiology; he received the title of "the Father of Microbiology” and dedicated many years of his life to improve the microscope in order to attain incredible heights of precision of the microscopic lenses. He produced magnifications from up to 275X, with a resolving power of up to 1.4 µm. Moreover, he presented his findings from the material of animals and vegetables in extraordinary detail as well as being the first to observe a glimpse of bacteria that he found in water; the first illustration of the bacteria is demonstrated in a representation by Leeuwenhoek in the 1683 “Philosophical Transactions” publication. In this publication, Leeuwenhoek wrote to the Royal Society about his observations of the inside of an old man’s mouth. He found "an unbelievably great company of living animalcules [Latin for ‘little animals’], a-swimming more nimbly than any I had ever seen up to this time. The biggest sort... bent their body into curves in going forwards. . . Moreover, the other animalcules were in such enormous numbers, that all the water... seemed to be alive." These were among the first observations on living bacteria ever recorded.