Leeuwenhoek biography
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Leeuwenhoek was born in Delft, Holland on October 24, His father was a basket-maker, and although Leeuwenhoek did not receive a university education and was not considered a scholar, his curiosity and skill allowed him to make some of the most important discoveries in the history of Biology.
He was educated as a child in the town of Warmond, lived with his uncle in Benthuizen, and apprenticed in as a fabric merchant. He returned to Delft, and established his own business as a fabric merchant, but also worked as a surveyor, a wine assayer and as a city official.
At some time before , Antonie van Leeuwenhoek learned to grind lenses, and used these to make very simple hand-held microscopes. These microscopes were not compound microscopes made of two or more lenses but refined magnifying glasses made with finely ground lenses. These microscopes, with appropriate lighting, allowed him to magnify objects over times. His curiosity about this microscopic world and his diligence in record
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Antonie van Leeuwenhoek ( - )
Antony Van Leeuwenhoek, c ©Van Leeuwenhoek was a Dutch textile merchant who became a pioneer of microbiology.
Antonie van Leeuwenhoek was born in Delft on 24 October In , van Leeuwenhoek was apprenticed to a textile merchant, which is where he probably first encountered magnifying glasses, which were used in the textile trade to count thread densities for quality control purposes. Aged 20, he returned to Delft and set himself up as a linen-draper. He prospered and was appointed chamberlain to the sheriffs of Delft in , and becoming a surveyor nine years later.
In , van Leeuwenhoek paid his first and only visit to London, where he probably saw a copy of Robert Hooke's 'Micrographia' () which included pictures of textiles that would have been of interest to him. In , he reported his first observations - bee mouthparts and stings, a human louse and a fungus - to the Royal Society. He was elected a member of the society in and continued his assoc
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The Dutch forskare and entrepreneur Antonie van Leeuwenhoek (–) was the first to discover and describe microorganisms (protists, bacteria), living beings he characterized as “animalcules” (little animals). Using single-lensed microscopes created for his own, private research, he was able to see and draw microbes for the first time in the history of biomedical sciences. As a result, he became later known as the “father of microbiology”.
In this Editorial, inom want to commemorate the th anniversary of van Leewenhoek’s death at the age of 90 years by briefly analyzing and summarizing his scientific legacy in different branches of microbiology, from medical aspects (pathogenic microbes in all kinds of organisms) to symbiotic relationships. In addition, van Leeuwenhoek’s neglected agenda of “public understanding of microscopic biology” is outlined, with reference to his status as a key figure in one of E.T.A. Hoffmann’s famous romantic fairy tales of , Master Flea (Figure 1).