Description: The fascinating life and legacy of a pioneering seventeenth-century microbiologist.
The pioneering Dutch microbiologist Antoni van Leeuwenhoek uncovered hidden worlds of minuscule life. With his ingenious, self-made microscopes, he observed inconceivably tiny creatures and structures everywhere--in well water, sperm, pimples, and many other unlikely things besides. In the seventeenth century, his discoveries opened the door to realms previously unseen, making him a renowned researcher. Myriad, Microscopic and Marvellous explores van Leeuwenhoek's brilliant and sometimes peculiar ideas, setting them in the context of his time. Geertje Dekkers reveals how van Leeuwenhoek's curiosity and inventions propelled the study of nature in surprising new directions, leaving a legacy that is still admired three centuries later.Brief description: Geertje Dekkers is a historian and journalist who works for the Centraal Museum in Utrecht and the newspapers Historisch Nieuwsblad and de Volkskrant.
Review Quotes:
"In 1674, microbiologist Antoni van Leeuwenhoek made 'his most sensational discovery, ' writes historian Dekkers in her revealing, finely illustrated biography. Examining water from a lake under a microscope, van Leeuwenhoek observed single-celled life forms racing in all directions: bacteria and protozoa. He also described red blood cells, capillaries, striated muscle fibres, spermatozoa and the eye's crystalline lens accurately. On his death in 1723, the UK Royal Society wrote that it had lost its most valuable correspondent."
-- "Nature"