On this date in 1632, Anton van Leeuwenhoek was born in Delft, The Netherlands. Van Leeuwenhoek became one of the most famous microscope experts of all time. A cloth merchant by trade, he made more than 400 primitive hand-ground lenses and looked at almost anything small enough to examine (a strand of hair, a bit of blood, the stinger from a bee). Working with his lenses, his naturally acute vision and bright light, Leeuwenhoek magnified his specimens more than 200 times and hired an illustrator to draw them. With his microscopes, van Leeuwenhoek discovered bacteria, blood cells, sperm, microscopic nematodes and the rotifer, a minute aquatic organism.

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