Robert Hooke and the Discovery of Cells

Key points

• 1665: Robert Hooke published Micrographia and named the boxes in cork cells (Latin cella, a small room).
• He designed his compound microscope and lit specimens with an oil lamp and a water-filled glass globe.
• Cork cells are dead: he saw only the cell walls.
• His estimate: about 1,259,712,000 cells in one cubic inch of cork.

A famous scientist with no face

Robert Hooke (1635–1703) gave biology the word cell, yet no authentic portrait of him survives; pictures online are modern reconstructions. What survives is his 1665 book Micrographia, with huge engravings of what he saw through his microscope.

Lighting a microscope in 1665

There were no electric bulbs, so Hooke placed a glass globe filled with water in front of an oil lamp. The globe acted like a lens and focused the light onto the specimen.

The cork and the word 'cell'

In a very thin slice of cork Hooke saw tiny boxes arranged like a honeycomb and called them cells. Cork cells are dead, so he saw only empty cell walls, no nucleus or cytoplasm.

Hooke's count

He counted about 60 cells in 1/18 of an inch, so 1,080 per inch.

1,080 × 1,080 × 1,080 = 1,259,712,000 cells per cubic inch

Where Hooke fits in the story

Fun fact: this is the same Hooke as Hooke's law of springs, so one scientist matters in both physics and biology.

Quick quiz

4 questions. Choose an answer for each, then submit to see your score and the explanations.