Selected Chronology of Events in the History of Biological Sciences
Updated August 27, 2008

Year	Event
1665	Robert Hooke describes “cells” from a thin sliver of cork:
Before 1668	Antony van Leeuwenhoek invents the ancestor of the modern light microscope. During his lifetime, he will construct ~500 microscopes.
1837	Matthias Schleiden: “Plant growth, he stated in 1837, came about through the production of new cells, which, he speculated, were propagated from the nuclei of old cells,” i.e., all plants are composed of cells.
1839	Theodor Schwann: “Once when he was dining with Schleiden in 1837, the conversation turned on the nuclei of vegetable cells. Schwann remembered having seen similar structures in the cells of the notochord (as had been shown by Müller) and instantly realized the importance of connecting the two phenomena. The resemblance was confirmed without delay by both observers, and the results soon appeared in his famous Microscopic Investigations on the Accordance in the Structure and Growth of Plants and Animals (Berlin, 1839; translated to English by the Sydenham Society, 1847),” i.e. all animals are composed of cells.
1858	Rudolf Virchow - "All living cells are derived from previously existing cells."
1856	Gregor Mendel publishes work on genetics of pea plants.
1901	Thomas Hunt Morgan "rediscovers" Gregor Mendel's work while exploring the genetics of fruit flies.
Early 1970's	Scientists attending a conference in Hawaii work out procedure for using restriction endonucleases from bacteria to move genes from one cell (organism) to another.
Early 1980's	Scientists mentioned above earn Nobel prize.
1986	Associate Degree programs for "recombinant DNA technologists" are advertised in Science.
Early 1990's	Human Genome Project is initiated, a project to sequence all genes of humans.
2000	Human Genome map is simultaneously published in Science and Nature.