Van Leeuwenhoek's own interest in lensmaking stemmed from his desire to more clearly see the quality of the thread he used in his draper business, and when he learned of the wonders of microscopy ...

One of the thrilling aspects of scientific discovery is that it can come from almost anywhere, and almost anyone. Few individuals exemplify this like Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, who, despite having ...

Anton van Leeuwenhoek writes a letter to Britain's Royal Society describing the "animalcules" he observed under the microscope. It's the first known description of bacteria.

Amateur Dutch scientist Anton van Leeuwenhoek, who lived in the late 1600s, was obsessed with the minute details of daily life. Leeuwenhoek studied any living thing he could find in his Delft home ...

In 1677 Anton van Leeuwenhoek, Dutch scientist and inventor of the first compound microscope, finally gave into peer pressure from his colleagues and used the tool to examine his own semen.