Assess the impact of technology on the development of cell theory. In particular, include the development of the microscope and give evidence where possible.

Since Galileo began using a rudimentary compound microscope in 1609, whole new ranges of objects not known to even exist were discovered from that basic piece of technology. The microscope played the key role in discovering cells, and as it advanced with technology, so too did the cell theory. In 1665, scientist Robert Hooke used a microscope to look at slices of cork. He noticed that the cork was divided up into hundreds of tiny little compartments …

…showed not just the shapes in cell, but the detail also, and is the sort of microscope that is used in senior schools. Schleiden and Schwann thought that cells reproduced by budding to make new cells, but a German physician called Rudolf L.C Virchow introduced the idea that they reproduce by dividing. This was confirmed in 1879, and the process was named mitosis, the final discovery that completed the basic cell theory we know today.