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You are here: Home / Science / What Else Did Antonie van Leeuwenhoek Discover With His New Microscopes Besides Single Celled Organisms?

What Else Did Antonie van Leeuwenhoek Discover With His New Microscopes Besides Single Celled Organisms?

April 19, 2020 by Karen Hill

In 1610, the Italian astronomer Galileo turned the telescope toward the skies and opened up a new universe to exploration.

Antonie van Leeuwenhoek did the same with his microscope and a different universe.

In a long life of careful observation and recording, he made many discoveries.

Leeuwenhoek studied his own blood and discovered red and white corpuscles.

He studied the blood vessels of animals and discovered the tiny capillaries, from the Latin for “hair-like”, that carry blood from the arteries to the veins.

Fifty years before, the great English anatomist William Harvey had discovered that blood flows away from the heart in arteries and back to the heart in veins, but he could not see how blood flowed between them.

The capillaries Leewenhoek discovered were that missing link.

Leeuwenhoek studied skin, hair, dust, and insects. In plants, he revealed the complex structure of roots, stems, and leaves.

Whatever he saw, he verified with many observations and he described in tremendous detail. He hired an illustrator to prepare accurate drawings of his findings.

The people of Delft thought he was a little crazy, but the scientists at the Royal Society in London were fascinated by his work.

Over his lifetime, he sent the Society 375 scientific papers on his findings.

Related Facts

  • Who Discovered how the Human Circulatory System works and When?
  • Who first Discovered Bacteria and that Microscopic Organisms cause infection and disease?
  • How Did Antonie van Leeuwenhoek Improve the Microscope and Why Is He Known As the Father Of Microbiology?
  • When Did Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Discover Bacteria With a Microscope and Where Do Beasties Come From?
  • How Does Blood Get Around Your Body?
  • Who Was Antoni van Leeuwenhoek and What Was Leeuwenhoek’s Most Important Contribution To Science?

Filed Under: Science

About Karen Hill

Karen Hill is a freelance writer, editor, and columnist. Born in New York, her work has appeared in the Examiner, Yahoo News, Buzzfeed, among others.

Previous Post: « How Did Carl Linnaeus Acquire Knowledge of So Many Different Plants and Which Flower Was Named After Him?
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