article_snippet.sent: The 17th century gave us an inventory of instruments which far extended man
article_snippet.sent: ’s understanding of the world: accurate thermometers and barometers, the air pump, the pendulum clock, improvements to the telescope, the refinement of the microscope.
article_snippet.sent: Leeuwenhoek’s mastery of lens-grinding saw him build a microscope capable of magnification up to 480 times.
article_snippet.sent: Scientists and dilettanti assembled cabinets of curiosity filled with rare animal and shell specimens.
article_snippet.sent: One of Leeuwenhoeck great discoveries was the observation of thousands of swimming creatures, which Leeuwenhoeck called animaculae or little animals, in murky water.
article_snippet.sent: Later generations would recognise generations as bacteria.
article_snippet.sent: Leeuwenhoeck was also the first scientist to observe the existence and movement of sperm.
article_snippet.sent: No one had yet seen the human sperm or the egg or understood the human sperm or the egg part in reproduction.