EVERYDAY SCIENCE

Detailed explanation-1: -Antonie van Leeuwenhoek used single-lens microscopes, which he made, to make the first observations of bacteria and protozoa. His extensive research on the growth of small animals such as fleas, mussels, and eels helped disprove the theory of spontaneous generation of life.

Detailed explanation-2: -Leeuwenhoek is universally acknowledged as the father of microbiology. He discovered both protists and bacteria [1]. More than being the first to see this unimagined world of ‘animalcules’, he was the first even to think of looking-certainly, the first with the power to see.

Detailed explanation-3: -Leeuwenhoek, despite having no scientific training, became the first to observe protozoa, red blood cells, the sperm cells of animals, and bacteria, which he described in numerous letters to the Royal Society of London.

Detailed explanation-4: -Antonie Van Leeuwenhoek first observed bacteria in the year 1676, and called them ‘animalcules’ (from Latin ‘animalculum’ meaning tiny animal). Most of the animalcules are now referred to as unicellular organisms, although he observed multicellular organisms in pond water.