Anton Van Leeuwenhoek biography

Anton van Leeuwenhoek (October 24, 1632 – August 26, 1723) considered the father of microbiology. He was born in Delft, the Netherlands. Baptized in the Protestant Reformed Church. His parents served as basket traders, Philips Teunisz Leeuwenhoek and Margriete Jacobsdr van den Berch. The occupation of his parents prevented him from studying, so he received a basic education at home. His father died when he was only five years old. As a result, his mother married for the second time and decided to send Anton to a boarding school, located in Warmond. At the age of 16, his stepfather died and simultaneously left the boarding school.

After leaving the boarding school he returned to his hometown, where he found a job in a small shop of fabrics. Thanks to his work he met for the first time a simple microscope, consisting of a small magnifying glass installed on a stand, used by fabric dealers to check the quality of the fabric. From that moment his interest in the operation of this device was increased.

Although apparently his life was spent between work, the observation, and the laboratory. He married on July 11, 1654, with Berber de Mey, daughter of a cloth merchant. With her he had five children, four of them died at an early age. Later in 1666, his wife died and he married again in 1671 with Cornelia Swalmius, from this union a daughter was born.

“Whenever I discovered something remarkable, I thought it was my duty to leave my discovery on paper so that all the ingenious people could be informed of it.” Anton van Leeuwenhoek

By the year 1654 his interest in the microscope had become an obsession, he began to investigate and experiment in his free time, he analyzed small objects, he also made improvements to the tissues, experimenting with different magnifying glasses to acquire and trade higher quality fabrics. After numerous studies and polished glass, made with his own hands, he developed a fixation method for biconvex lenses, which catapulted as the biggest advance of microscopes until now. We see that his advances with glass not only served him to work with fabrics and threads, to be a curious and excellent worker, but that they began their research and great discoveries that changed the course of biology.

He was the first to observe bacteria and protozoa. His research in the lower animals refuted the hypothesis of spontaneous generation and his observations laid the foundations of bacteriology and protozoology. In addition, he discovered the red blood cells, he could see through the microscope, the capillary vessels through which the blood flows from the veins to the arteries, reaffirming Harvey’s theory. He also studied the capillary system and clearly detail the life cycles of the insects. Anton van Leeuwenhoek was certainly the first person to observe bacteria, even without being aware of it. Thanks to these investigations he is recognized as the father of microbiology.

Few people in his city were interested in his studies and advances, except Dr. Regnier de Graaft, a distinguished doctor, who not only spent hours debating and sharing knowledge but motivated him to write letters to the Royal Society of London to give an account of his findings. In a letter dated September 7, 1674, he explained how he had seen tiny life forms in the waters of a lake in the city. Although at first, he received no answer, in the year 1676, Anton van Leeuwenhoek describes in a letter the result of an investigation in which he found what we know today as protozoan organisms. Later he received a response from the Royal Society of London and gained prestige among researchers.

In 1680, due to his scientific contributions, he showed that the yeast was composed of tiny globular particles. Consequently, Anton van Leeuwenhoek is elected to be part of the Royal Society of London. Years later the Academy of Sciences of Paris invited him to be a member of this institution. During these decades his research career was growing and his studies were becoming more complete and complex. It was so important that he received illustrious visitors, among whom Peter I of Russia, Frederick II of Prussia and James II of England stand out, who came before him to observe, through his microscopes, his findings.

He died in Delft, on August 26, 1723, at the age of 90, because of a strange illness, which he himself described as a strange malaise that caused contractions in his diaphragm involuntarily. This disease is currently known as Leeuwenhoek’s disease. In his testament the donation of 26 microscopes to the Royal Society.

Despite being despised for his humble origin and for not having studied, centuries later, he would be considered the precursor of experimental biology, cell, and microbiology. Throughout his life, he manufactured more than 500 lenses. His development of the microscope was used and perfected by Christiaan Huygens. In his honor, in 1877, the Royal Dutch Academy of Arts and Sciences created the Leeuwenhoek Medal, which is awarded every decade to the scientist who has made the greatest contribution to Microbiology.