#animalcules

On this day in 1676, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek (24 October 1632 – 26 August 1723) was able to observe bacteria for the first time.

He initially called the tiny organisms swimming around his pepper water "animalcules."

In the 1600s, Dutch businessman Antonie van Leeuwenhoek turned his hobby of lens-making into groundbreaking science.

With handmade microscopes that magnified over 200 times, he peered into a whole new world and eventually became the "Father of Microbiology."

In 1676, after leaving a flask of pepper water on a shelf for three weeks, he noticed it had turned cloudy. Curious, he took a closer look and made history.

Through his lens, Leeuwenhoek saw thousands of tiny creatures swimming in a single drop of water — so small they were just 1 to 2 micrometers wide, about one-hundredth the width of a human hair!

He called them "animalcules," believing they possessed tiny organs, such as hearts and stomachs.

He formally communicated his findings to the Royal Society in 1683, following a series of experiments and scrutiny by fellow scientists.

However, it took nearly 200 years more before his findings on bacteria were formally recognized.

""In the year 1675, I discovered very small living creatures in rain water, which had stood but few days in a new earthen pot glazed blue within." Those are the famous words that Anthony Van Leeuwenhoek used to describe microbes. Though he didn't use the word "microbe"--he called them animalcules--and the letter itself is not exactly the one he wrote. Leeuwenhoek's version was written, of course, in Dutch and then sent off to Henry Oldenburg, the secretary of the Royal Society in London who found the publication Philosophical Transactions. Oldenberg translated Leeuwenhoek's work into English and published it in 1677. The rest, as they say, is microbiology."

Journey to the Microcosmos- Leeuwenhoek: The First Master of Microscopes

Images Originally Captured by Jam's Germs

Animalcules - Marbles

This was my design for Marbles which became the cover for Animalcules by Stephanie Jessop. Really fun project to work on!

"Several of Leeuwenhoek's contemporaries tried and failed to replicate his observations until finally Robert Hooke--the famed microscopist and writer-slash-illustrator of Micrographia--was able to see the tiny animalcules Leeuwenhoek had seen. Hooke however was willing to outline his specific methods and demonstrate them, validating the observations Leeuwenhoek had made and providing others with the means to make their own microbial ventures.... Hooke was reportedly so taken with Leeuwenhoek's work that he learned Dutch to read his letters."

Journey to the Microcosmos Journey to the Microcosmos- Leeuwenhoek: The First Master of Microscopes

"The creatures Leeuwenhoek described in his 1677 publication were not his first description of tiny animals in water through. In 1674, he wrote of "green streaks, spirally wound," a description that later observers have taken to refer to the filamentous green algae spirogyra. He also wrote of little creatures he'd found that were, as he described them, "a thousand times smaller than the smallest ones I have ever yet seen upon the rind of cheese.""

Journey to the Microcosmos- Leeuwenhoek: The First Master of Microscopes