In the late 17th century, a Dutch draper and self-taught scientist named Antonie van Leeuwenhoek earned renown for building some of the best microscopes available at a time when the instrument ...

Van Leeuwenhoek crafted more than 500 microscopes, but only 11 of his instruments survive today—and only one that produces the 270X magnification he used to make his greatest discovery.

1683: Anton van Leeuwenhoek writes a letter to Britain's Royal Society describing the "animalcules" he observed under the microscope. It's the first known description of bacteria. Van Leeuwenhoek ...

Antoni van Leeuwenhoek had what some might consider an unusual hobby for a Dutch cloth merchant in the 17th century: making simple but exquisite microscopes. His hometown of Delft in the ...

Although his microscopes weren’t much bigger than a modern microscope slide, Anton van Leeuwenhoek coaxed 200x magnification out of his small devices. (Credit: Blue Lantern Studio/Corbis) Perhaps one ...

The discovery by Anton van Leeuwenhoek of tiny creatures living in pond water stunned the scientific world. Its importance was quickly realised, as was that of the microscope, which has literally ...

With his microscopes, Antoni van Leeuwenhoek saw a whole new world full of minute life which nobody had ever suspected could exist. He was the first to observe unicellular organisms, which is why ...

March 21, 2018 One of Van Leeuwenhoek's microscopes. Photo: Jeroen Rouwkema via Wikimedia Commons One of Van Leeuwenhoek’s microscopes. Photo: Jeroen Rouwkema via Wikimedia Commons One of the ...

Dutch scientist Antonie van Leeuwenhoek made extraordinary observations of blood cells, sperm cells and bacteria with his microscopes. But it turns out the lens technology he used was quite ordinary.

In 1677, just twenty years after William Harvey's death, Dutch scientist Antonie van Leeuwenhoek created a microscope powerful enough to magnify the sperm found in semen. Because Harvey could not ...

Antonie van Leeuwenhoek went on to craft some of the finest microscopes of his time, achieving magnifications of over 200x. Initially secretive about his methods, he eventually became open to ...

His microscopes indisputably proved to humanity ... "Without being snotty, Leeuwenhoek (the 'van' is an affectation he adopted later on) was not trained as an experimental thinker," explained ...