The Cell Theory The cell theory states that all living organisms are comprised of similar microscopic

units referred to as cells. The concept was officially created by Schleiden & Schwann and is the compound theory of all modern biology. The discovery of the theory has resulted in many other branches of famous information such as the theory of evolution and Mendelian inheritance. Other future theories such as The Cell is the Basic Unit of Life in Living Things and that All Cells are produced by Other Cells provoked other necessary privileges in human technology such as forensics and animal breeding. This was all due to a course of events that started in 1500: It all started with a guy called Zacharias Janssen (1588), who was a Dutch spectacle maker, and was also the person that first came up with the idea of the microscope, although other sources explain otherwise. But when Zacharias released his invention, every biologist and naturalist wanted to use it and observe plants and other stuff. All scientists wanted one except Anton Van Leeuwenhoek who, instead of buying one from Zacharias, made his own. His invention led to the discovery of microscopic life which provoked the cell theory in different ways. Anton then started to send his information to one of his scientific colleagues in England who also enjoyed science and looking at things in a microscope. He was the one who we can now thank for giving The Cell its name. He was looking at a piece of cork when he noticed little chamber like things which he later on called cells. Then later on in 1800, Mat Thias Schleiden, who was a botanist that studied plants, started to realise that all of the plants that he looked at through his microscope all had something in common. They all had cells. Then Theodore Schwann, who was also a scientist in Germany, was studying animal tissue through a microscope. After a while, just like Schleiden, he too came to the conclusion that all animals were all made up of cells. He mailed his discoveries to all the scientists he knew. These scientists included Schleiden who wrote back to him and then they started to work on the cell theory. When they were creating the last part of the cell theory (all cells come from pre-existing cells) Schleiden disagreed with Schwanns theory and said that all cells just crystallised into life. After this, another scientist called Rudolf Virchow stepped in, showing research that all cells did come from other cells and that Schleiden was wrong, thus completing the cell theory. Before the cell theory, people used to use different heeling methods the 1600s. Before scientists and physicians discovered how to fight diseases they would use very strange and inhuman methods (e.g. nowadays, if somebody has a fever or is dehydrated, we use medicines that provide vitamins for the lack of them in your body during sickness). The people in the 1600s didnt have the knowledge of bacteria, cells and diseases that attacked cells, so they thought that they could counter diseases with a more literal approach. When somebody had a fever, they would put a cucumber to that persons head because cucumbers were cool. Leeches would also be used in certain cases to prevent diseases by sucking out the disease. Other more dangerous diseases, such as the black plague, made other people pray to the gods to stop punishing them. They also used herbs in some medicinal cases and found out about more useful combinations of herbs to fight diseases. These days, when somebody has a fever we just give them a Paracetamol tablet and let them lie in bed for a day. Another advantage in our time is the life expectancy of a human. In the 1600s the average life expectancy would be 35 years of age. Now, the life expectancy is 70 years. But in the 1600s, woman had a five year less life expectancy due to childbirth. One in four women would die giving birth to a child. Now, thanks to modern day medicine, we can prevent death when giving birth. Also, in the past, the average education time of a doctor would be six years before they could start working in the field. Now, after 4-6 years of education, we go on to paid employment and if we are successful you go through a 5 year education to become a specialist. The education in the past would also have been different because if you wanted to become a neurologist then you wouldnt have learned about connective gas released by neurons in such detail or just not learn it at all. The cell theory helped us understand how to cure different types of sicknesses by studying them in detail. It also helped us understand that certain sickness destroyed cells, such as the black plague, which was the cause of death in some cases.

Forensic Science is the study of establishing what happened based on evidence discovered and connect it to the phenomenon. Forensics is used a lot in criminal investigation and police work to discover the person that had committed the crime. The cell theory comes into this by stating that every living being contains cells. In every cell there is a nucleus. In every nucleus there are nucleoli that are made up of DNA. Every DNA strand in everybody is different to everyone else. Just like fingerprints, law enforcers can use blood samples or hair strands to determine that persons DNA and establish the culprit of the crime. The police do this by taking the sample, scanning it in a microscope and determining that persons DNA pattern. Then they have to capture the prime suspect of the investigation and match the DNA sample with the suspects and if it matches, then that person would be the criminal. This method is used a lot in police work very often and usually doesnt fail. It usually fails in situations in which the crime might be committed from the inside, such as a family member murdering another family member. This method can also be foiled by a cunning assassin if he makes sure to cover up his tracks by wearing gloves or making sure he doesnt cut himself. Even though this method of discovering the culprit in law enforcement has a lot of flaws, it has a lot of upsides to it considering the criminal is not a trained assassin. This is what the people lacked in the 1600 hundreds and is what caused criminals to escape punishment so often. The fact that the 16 hundreds didnt have the fairest deciphering system resulted in unfair punishment to innocent suspects. They would rely solely on forced confessions and eye witness accounts. In the Roman era however, they would rely on the best speech given by the accuser and the accused. The individual with the best argument would win the case and the other would be punished (punished for lying if they were the accuser and punished for whatever crime the accused personage had committed). Nowadays, forensics is very popular. It is especially popular among American police and forensic scientists. As of 2010, there had been a recording of 12,000 scientists in the US. Thats and equivalent of 240 scientists per state on average. This goes to show how much the cell theory and the knowledge of it has helped the human race accomplish an enormous feat. The cell theory also helped animal breeders understand how to get dogs with certain traits. The all cells come from other cells part is what helps us here. When the early animal breeders realised that if a mother and a father had a child, that child would have both his/her mothers and fathers attributes. So if you breed animals like dogs, you could get a pet that swims well and is a good family pet like a Labrador. But what animal breeders also did is they bread other animals like goats and chickens (farm animals) to get them to produce more eggs or more milk. This was a triumph for agricultural product producers. Breeding stock are animals whose intended purpose is for purebred breeding (breeding the same stock) or crossbreeding (breeding to create a completely new type of stock). Although crossbreeding happens a lot, pure breeding is usually more deliberate whilst crossbreeding is most likely to be accidental. Cross breeding can mix two animals traits to make an animal that is somewhat better and pure breeding is usually done to maintain an animals traits. But this raises another question which is what was the first dog, or horse etc. Knowing the cell theory has helped us to create the perfect pet or livestock for all of us. Without the breeders realising that all cells come from other cells, we wouldnt have Alsatians, who protect their masters until they die, or Shetland Ponies, who are the favourite of many young children. So to sum it all up, the cell theory plays a pretty important part in mankinds history, the lives of the people that have been saved due to the presence of the cell theory, and the wonderful accomplishments, biological and technological. Thanks to all those people that date right back to 1500, starting with Zacharias and ending with Schleiden & Schwann, the human race has achieved great medical triumph and forensic success. As we sit in our seats with all this knowledge of the microscopic and cellular world, we have to remember how complicating it was to gain that knowledge. Just how many people studied cells their whole lives just to be a tiny part of the 1000 piece puzzle we now call, The Cell Theory.

Bibliographies "Zacharias Janssen." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 09 Jan. 2013. Web. 08 Sept. 2013. "Health And Medicine -1600." Health And Medicine -1600. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Sept. 2013. "Forensic Science." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 09 July 2013. Web. 08 Sept. 2013. "History of Cell Biology." Bitesize Bio. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Sept. 2013 "The Wacky History of Cell Theory - Lauren Royal-Woods." YouTube. YouTube, 04 June 2012. Web. 08 Sept. 2013. "Animal Breeding." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 20 Aug. 2013. Web. 08 Sept. 2013.