Antonio Van Leeuwenhoek is well known for his studies of microorganisms, sex and reproduction under the Microscope. Born in the Netherlands during the mid 16th century, he lived during a thriving period of time in Dutch History. This was known as the golden age, a time of economic, cultural and scientific prosper. Immigrants came to the Netherlands to escape religious prosecution. Amsterdam was bustling with writers, scholars, and wealthy merchants. Leeuwenhoek who was raised in the Netherlands started to perfect the recently invented microscope in the lat 1660’s. He continued to study small organisms, such as fleas, under the microscope. Leeuwenhoek soon discovered that there were millions of microorganisms everywhere. By putting corn meal under the microscope, he sat that it was invested with minute worms. These worms were causing sifters infectious diseases.
Leeuwenhoek is also known for his scientific advances in reproduction. He looked at seminal fluid under the microscope and realized sperm was made up of millions of microorganisms, which were documented as spermatozoa. This allowed him to further understand the process of reproduction, and theorized that the sperm entered the ovum. His scientific discoveries regarding spermatozoa and reproduction enable him to prove the popular belief of spontaneous generation of life incorrect. This was a theory that living organisms could come from non living objects. Such as mice could come from dirty hay. This theory was believed by the majority of people during the 16th and 17th century and was recognized by the church. Even though Leeuwenhoek did prove this theory incorrect he was not a major threat to the church because it did not disprove the theory of creationism. His discoveries were important for two main reasons. First, he was able to find the route of many infectious diseases by discovering microorganisms. Second, he was able to understand what actually occurred during reproduction and prove the theory of spontaneous generation incorrect. Leeuwenhoek is known as the father of microbiology, and was and was recognized by the English Royal Society.
Please look at this amusing video about how the sperm attaches itself to the ovum.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gc1L61FpAnY&feature=related
For more information on spontaneous generation:
http://www.allaboutthejourney.org/spontaneous-generation.htm
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11 comments:
I think it is really interesting that you talk about the history of that time so much. It is important to know what was going on during that time period and more specifically in what regions. How did the moving of so many people affect your topic?
Since in that time period it was believed that living creatures were spontaneously generated, did everyone immediately believe Leeuwenhoeks discovery or did it take a while for people to support it?
This is very interesting to think about how the study of this topic came about. How did Leeuwenhoek become so interested with studying organisms under the microscpe?
Were people skeptical of his ideas ? What were some of the challenges that he faced ?
Knowing what we do now about the world's attitude towards sex and reproduction, how open or closed the subjects can be, I'm curious to know how people reacted to them during a time when ideas of proprierty were much different. What was the initial reaction, and then the much later one?
I think you did a good job explaining yourself and the history of what was going on at the time. I am curious to see how you explain people's reactions to the whole idea. What exactly was the reaction that the people had as well as what did he do when they reacted that way?
One thing I would really like to know is the response that many of the people of the time period have to this study. People during this time had notions of what they thought was true and were stubborn in their beliefs. When it comes to this topic, I wonder how skeptical they were and how long it took for them to believe in it even with hard facts.
Leeuwenhoek did humanity a great service with his research into microorganisms. More towards the "Under the Microscope" part of the title rather than the "Sex and Reproduction", I feel his discovery of the infectious worms on the corn-meal had the potential to be quite a shocker to many of the people at the time. what I'm curious to find out is whether or not this discovery really hit home as hard as it should of. Did it inspire better quality of food preparation and storage?
I'm wondering what made him decide to put sperm under a microscope in the first place; what was he expecting, if anything? I hope there will be some sort of explanation in your presentation.
What was the cultural impact of this discovery at the time? How did people react?
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