In the Tradition of Leeuwenhoek…

Jennifer Frazer at The Artful Amoeba has a post on Leeuwenhoek and she links (figuratively and electronically) our historic hero to the modern Dutch photomicrographer, Wim van Egmond.

Van Egmond is very well known in the photomicrographic community and some of his amazing work can be seen at Micropolitan Museum of Microscopic Art Forms. One of Wim van Egmond’s latest projects includes his participation on the VPRO Beagle expedition, as they travel in the wake of Darwin. There he has been busy doing work suitable to the current heir of the observational tradition of Leeuwenhoek.

And visit this article to see how Wim van Egmond has discovered the secret to Leeuwenhoek’s success!

Kepler’s Appendix

The Renaissance Mathematicus sheds light on Kepler’s appendix…and how it influenced renaissance scientists and modern optics…

Say what?

The Whipple Museum of the History of Science

The Whipple Museum of the History of Science in Cambridge, England  houses a collection of  “...scientific instruments, apparatus, models, pictures, prints, photographs, books and other material related to the history of science.” It was initiated when the University of Cambridge received a donation of instruments and books by Robert Stewart Whipple in 1944. One of the collections consists of microscopes, and in this collecton are two replicas of Leeuwenhoek microscopes:

Antoni van Leeuwenhoek made a vast number of microscopes during his lifetime; 248 were sold at auction in 1747, but only 10 are thought to have survived. The microscopes themselves have a single lens and are very difficult to use, as was noted during Leeuwenhoek’s lifetime. The Whipple Museum has two 19th-century reproductions by John Mayall.

Read the complete article on the replicas and view a brief Leeuwenhoek biography at the Whipple Museum Explore site.

Leeuwenhoek’s Microscope in the Classroom

An article from CBE – Life Sciences promotes Leeuwenhoek for teaching science history in high school. In the effort to motivate an interest in the history of science, this study from Brazil utilizes replicas of the Leeuwenhoek microscope to connect the past to the present. The abstract:

The history of science should be incorporated into science teaching as a means of improving learning and also to increase the students’ understanding about the nature of science. In biology education, the history of microscopy deserves a special place. The discovery of this instrument not only opened a new and fantastic microworld but also led to the development of one unifying principle of biological sciences (i.e., cell theory). The microscopes of Leeuwenhoek and Hooke opened windows into the microworld of living organisms. In the present work, the knowledge of these themes was analyzed in a group of students beginning an undergraduate biology course. Our data suggest that the history of microscopy is poorly treated at the secondary school level. We propose a didactic activity using a replica of Leeuwenhoek’s microscope made with Plexiglas and a lens obtained from a key chain laser pointer or from a broken CD drive. The proposed activity motivated students to learn about microscopy and helped them to appreciate scientific knowledge from a historical perspective.

Included with the study is supplemental material with instructions for the construction of replica Leeuwenhoek microscopes.

Lenira M.N. Sepel, Elgion L.S. Loreto, and João B.T. Rocha Using a Replica of Leeuwenhoek’s Microscope to Teach the History of Science and to Motivate Students to Discover the Vision and the Contributions of the First Microscopists
CBE Life Sci Educ 2009: 338–343. [Abstract] [Full Text]