Introduction

Robert Hooke presented an account of the cells of cork to the members of the Royal Society in 1660. Although Jan Swammerdam had observed blood cells around this same time, it was only documented almost 50 years later after his death. As early as 1700, using a tiny sphere of polished glass as a microscope, which had a magnification power of 275, Antony van Leeuwenhoek observed live yeast cells as globular bodies in a drop of fermenting beer and called them “animalcules”. Both Robert Hook and Antony van Leeuwenhoek had doubted the validity of the spontaneous theory, but a new approach was necessary in order to abandon the spontaneous generation theory. In 1838, while outlining the importance of the cell nucleus over dinner, Matthias Jakob Schleiden (a botanist) prompted Theodor Schwann (a zoologist) to recall observing similar structures in the notochordal cells of the tadpole. The perceived commonality of the plant and animal world, in having nucleated cells, led to the “grand unification theory” of biology, the cell theory. Identified as the common denominator of “life”, the cell became its fundamental building block. However, in Schwann and Schleiden’s “cell theory”, cells arise spontaneously, contrary to the subsequent recognition that a new cell arises from pre-existing cells. Since the time of “grand unification” much progress has been made in dissecting cells down to the atomic constituents. Paradoxically, the fundamental essence of “life” is not fully understood.

The second half of the 18th century was a turning point. The cause and significance of heat production during fermentation was discovered by Louis Pasteur, who argued that fermentation is a process involving chemical transformation of glucose to ethanol and is intricately linked to life. Later, using the famous swan-neck experiment, Pasteur demonstrated that a cell arises only from a pre-existing cell, putting to rest the long-held belief of “spontaneous” origin. Justus von Leibig did not accept that fermentation of glucose was in any way fundamental to “life”. Later, Hans and Eduard Buchner demonstrated that even yeast extract, although lacking a “living” cell, ferments glucose. Both Leibig and Pasteur were right in their own ways; “Biochemistry” was thus born, being given this name by Carl Alexander Neuberg in 1903.