Anton van Leeuwenhoek, one of the leaders of the microbiology, was born on this day in 1632. To commemorate this anniversary, Google dedicates its doodle today to the scientist who described the “animálculos” hiding in a single drop of water. Van Leeuwenhoek, a pioneer of the well-known school microbiological of Delft (the Netherlands), he used a rudimentary microscope of a single lens to describe what we now know as protozoa, cyanobacteria, or algae.

The doodle designed by Google just remember the animated world that van Leeuwenhoek gave birth to that nascent technology. The microscope he served as the first microbiologist in history to examine other objects of everyday life, showing that what is essential, as said the wise fox in The little Prince, can also be invisible to the eyes. So van Leeuwenhoek determined that there were also “animálculos” in the crust of the cheese and studied in detail, for example, the stings of the bees. The discoveries of van Leeuwenhoek through the microscope were mimicked by Ignacio López Goñi, professor of Microbiology, in this funny video from his channel on YouTube:

The construction of a rudimentary microscope, along with their observations, were reported in the SEVENTEENTH century the Royal Society of London . Initially researchers did not believe the results achieved by Anton van Leeuwenhoek about the unicellular organisms hiding in a single drop of water, so that a commission evaluated its conclusions. When it was confirmed the existence of the “animálculos”, the microbiologist, was appointed a member of this important scientific organization. In addition to the discovery of unicellular beings, Anton van Leeuwenhoek was a pioneer to observe for the first time cells like muscle fibers and red blood cells from the blood or sperm.

Although the Dutch are not engaged professionally in science, because it was a cloth merchant, his studies marked a historic turning point. The microscope that he built was based on a tiny lens biconvexa, barely a millimeter in diameter, which is mounted on a metal plate I got up to 275 increases to view in detail what was not visible to our eyes. With the homage he dedicated to her today Google to celebrate its birthday, the doodle reminds of a pioneer who knew how to look where everyone looked, but see what no one was able to see.