Home » Science & Nature » Microbiology » The People of Microbiology

The People of Microbiology

© Neal Rolfe Chamberlain

This week I have been in a more philosophical mood. So there will be no new discoveries, no new treatments, nor new microbes to look at. I thought maybe it would be good to get back to my microbial roots so to speak and learn about the founders of the field of microbiology. So if you will allow me one week of looking back in time I promise next week to wow you, if possible, with something new and microbial.

The field of microbiology is really the results of a small group of people called microbiologists. Microbiologists strive to know more about little living microorganisms (animalcules). How and where do microorganisms live? What makes them grow? How do they cause disease in other living organisms? What about them helps our environment?

With a large amount of effort some of these questions are answered. Sometimes when I think about the great discoveries of microbiology I think about the people that made these amazing discoveries. Where did they grow up? Where did they come from? Why did they become scientists?

One famous founder of Microbiology said this about why he became a scientist:

. . . my work, which I've done for a long time, was not pursued in order to gain the praise I now enjoy, but chiefly from a craving after knowledge, which I notice resides in me more than in most other men. And therewithal, whenever I found out anything remarkable, I have thought it my duty to put down my discovery on paper, so that all ingenious people might be informed thereof. Antony van Leeuwenhoek. Letter of June 12, 1716

This quote is just the reason many people get into science in the first place. This quote also helped me to realize, once again, why I wanted to be a scientist. I love to find out just one more interesting thing about the world we live in and then tell others about that interesting discovery. Antony van Leeuwenhoek never lost that desire for knowledge and he wanted to communicate that knowledge to others. (Helping people to know more about our microbial world is one of the reasons why I became an editor for Microbiology here at Suite101.com.)

As a result of his work, Antony van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723) has been credited as being the first to see foraminifera, red blood cells, and living sperm cells of animals. He also discovered microscopic animals such as nematodes, rotifers, and many other living organisms too small for the naked eye to see. He was not from a highly educated family. He only spoke one language (Dutch). For his time he would