When news breaks, you need to understand what actually matters. At Vox, our mission is to help you make sense of the world — and that work has never been more vital. But we can’t do it on our own. We ...

Some time around 1683, amateur Dutch scientist Antonie van Leeuwenhoek scraped the plaque from between his teeth and peered at it through a home-made microscope.

Henry Baker drew this illustration of van Leeuwenhoek's microscopes in 1756. __1683: __Anton van Leeuwenhoek writes a letter to Britain's Royal Society describing the "animalcules" he observed under ...

Google Doodle has marked the 384th birthday of scientist Antoni van Leeuwenhoek - considered the world's first microbiologist who discovered sperm. Van Leeuwenhoek, was born today in 1632, designed ...

Imagine trying to cope with a pandemic like COVID-19 in a world where microscopic life was unknown. Prior to the 17th century, people were limited by what they could see with their own two eyes. But ...

On a quiet street in Delft in the 17th century, a draper bent over a piece of fabric with a magnifying glass. He was not a scholar in a grand university or a man with a patron's purse. He was a ...

Antonie van Leeuwenhoek opened up a whole new world to us; he was the first to observe bacteria and other microscopic lifeforms which could not be seen by the naked eye. He is now regarded as the ...

Why is Christian Science in our name? Our name is about honesty. The Monitor is owned by The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and we’ve always been transparent about that. The church publishes the ...

Monday marks the 384th birthday of Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, credited with being the first microbiologist. While he might not be a household name today, the Dutch textile salesman ground and polished ...

Who needs fancy electron microscopes when you’ve got the simple but ingenious hand-held microscope through which microbes were seen for the first time almost 340 years ago. These pictures – of the ...

1683: Anton van Leeuwenhoek writes a letter to Britain's Royal Society describing the "animalcules" he observed under the microscope. It's the first known description of bacteria. Van Leeuwenhoek had ...