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n in Dental Plaque! (Ewwww!) –n1683
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nUntilnthe late 1600s, nobody knew that there were tiny, invisible creaturesnliving among (and in!) us. But on this date in 1683, Antony VannLeeuwenhoek wrote a letter to Britain’s Royal Society describing tinynone-celled creatures he discovered while looking through anmicroscope.
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nHencalled these creatures “animalcules,” but today we call themnbacteria.
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nMicroscopesnhad been invented almost a century earlier, and even compoundnmicroscopes (those that combine ocular and objective lenses) had beenncreated by Van Leeuwenhoek’s time. However, the early compoundnmicroscopes were not able to get clear images at more than twenty ornthirty times magnification. Van Leeuwenhoek was able to look at muchnsmaller things using the simple microscopes he himself made—thenbest in the world, for the time—achieving magnifications above 200ntimes!
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nAndnwhat did he study using his powerful microscope? Plaque scraped fromnhis own teeth and from the teeth of four other people. n
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nVannLeeuwenhoek was surprised to see living creatures “very prettilyna-moving.” Some shot through the plaque-and-water mixture, straightnand swift, and others “spun round like a top.”
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nVannLeeuwenhoek later discovered foraminifera fossils, blood cells,nanimal sperm cells, and vacuoles in cells. (These are like storagenbins inside cells. They contain water and important molecules.)
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nWithnall of this discovery, you are probably not surprised that VannLeeuwenhoek is considered the “Father of Microbiology.”
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nLearnnmore…
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nBiology4Kidsnhas a website about microorganisms.
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nMicrobe World has tons of links to explore, and Science Kids offers videos of microscopic activity.
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nTonlearn about other founders of microbiology, check out this and this other earlier posts. (Both posts include other topics not related tonmicrobiology. Just scan down to the picture of the microscope!) Therenare also activities such as a fun virtual microscope.
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