NEET BIOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -The first time the word cell was used to refer to these tiny units of life was in 1665 by a British scientist named Robert Hooke. Hooke was one of the earliest scientists to study living things under a microscope. The microscopes of his day were not very strong, but Hooke was still able to make an important discovery.

Detailed explanation-2: -Hooke detailed his observations of this tiny and previously unseen world in his book, Micrographia. To him, the cork looked as if it was made of tiny pores, which he came to call “cells” because they reminded him of the cells in a monastery.

Detailed explanation-3: -In 1665, Robert Hooke was the first to observe cork cells and their characteristic hexagonal shape, using the first optical microscope, which was invented by him at that time.

Detailed explanation-4: -Robert Hooke coined the term “Cell” which means small compartment, in Latin. He named it so, because the boxlike cells of a cork slice which he observed under a microscope, reminded him of the rooms, or cells of monks in a monastery and so he said that the cork was made up of cells.

Detailed explanation-5: -Robert Hooke had discovered the small-scale structure of cork. And he concluded that the small-scale structure of cork explained its large-scale properties. Cork floats, Hooke reasoned, because air is sealed in the cells. That air springs back after being compressed, and that’s why cork is springy.