Microorganisms - Introduction

Introduction

In 1675, Anton van Leeuwenhoek (1632–1723), a Dutch merchant with an interest in science, looked through a microscope at a drop of stagnant water. He had originally built a simple microscope to examine textile threads for the draperies he made. Eventually, as a result of his scientific investigations, he built a more powerful microscope that could magnify objects 200 times. Under such a microscope, van Leeuwenhoek saw that the dirty water was full of tiny living creatures. Before his discovery, the smallest living creatures known were tiny insects. He called the life forms he looked at animalculesLife forms that Anton van Leeuwenhoek named when he first saw them under his microscope; they later became known as protozoa and bacteria., but they would later become known as protozoaSingle-celled animal-like microscopic organisms that live by taking in food rather than making it by photosynthesis. They must live in the presence of water. and bacteriaSingle-celled microorganisms that live in soil, water, plants, and animals and that play a key role in the decaying of organic matter and the cycling of nutrients. Some are agents of disease.. Other scientists would also find different life forms under the microscope and give them specific names. In time, the term microorganismsLiving organisms so small that they can be seen only with the aid of a microscope. would be used to describe all microscopic forms of life.