Print Email Facebook Twitter Neutron tomography of Van Leeuwenhoek's microscopes Title Neutron tomography of Van Leeuwenhoek's microscopes Author Cocquyt, Tiemen (Rijksmuseum Boerhave) Zhou, Z. (TU Delft RST/Neutron and Positron Methods in Materials) Plomp, J. (TU Delft RID/TS/Instrumenten groep) van Eijck, L. (TU Delft RST/Neutron and Positron Methods in Materials) Date 2021 Abstract The technique of neutron tomography has, after 350 years, enabled a first look inside the iconic single-lens microscopes of Antoni van Leeuwenhoek. Van Leeuwenhoek's 17th-century discovery of "animalcules"marks the birth of microbiology. His skillfully self-produced microscope lenses remained unsurpassed for over 150 years. Neutron tomography now enabled us to reveal the lens types Van Leeuwenhoek used. We argue that Van Leeuwenhoek's instruments incorporate some innovations that testify to an awareness of concurrent developments. In particular, our analysis shows that for making his best-performing microscopes, Van Leeuwenhoek deployed a lens-making procedure popularized in 1678 by Robert Hooke. This is notable, as Hooke always wanted to find the secret of Van Leeuwenhoek's lenses, but never managed to do so. Therefore, Van Leeuwenhoek was far from the isolated scholar he is often claimed to be; rather, his secrecy about his lenses was motivated by an attempt to conceal his indebtedness to Hooke. Subject OA-Fund TU Delft To reference this document use: http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:36feb185-cca3-4bdf-8a36-f9bbf2344508 DOI https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abf2402 ISSN 2375-2548 Source Science Advances, 7 (20) Part of collection Institutional Repository Document type journal article Rights © 2021 Tiemen Cocquyt, Z. Zhou, J. Plomp, L. van Eijck Files PDF eabf2402.full.pdf 398.28 KB Close viewer /islandora/object/uuid:36feb185-cca3-4bdf-8a36-f9bbf2344508/datastream/OBJ/view