Who developed microscopes in the 1600s?

• A. Robert Hooke
• B. Antony van Leuwenhoek
• C. Louis Pasteur
• D. Joseph Lister

Answer: (B)

Antony van Leeuwenhoek is the key figure for advancing microscopy in the 1600s. He created small, highly polished single‑lens microscopes that achieved remarkable magnification for the time and used them to observe living microbes—bacteria, protozoa, sperm cells, and more. This hands‑on work opened up the microbial world and showed what microscopes could reveal about life that isn’t visible to the naked eye. While Robert Hooke contributed important microscopy work as well, especially with the cork cells and the use of a compound microscope, van Leeuwenhoek’s lenses and observations pushed the field forward in a way that defined the era. Pasteur and Lister come from the 19th century, known for germ theory and antiseptic technique rather than developing the microscopes themselves.