Human Tech Tree
Researched1838 · Industrial Age (1700 – 1900)

Life / Biology & Genetics

Cell theory

All living things consist of cells, and every cell comes from another cell.

Open in the interactive tree →

Matthias Schleiden (plants, 1838) and Theodor Schwann (animals, 1839) concluded that cells are the basic unit of life; Rudolf Virchow added in 1855 that new cells only arise from existing ones. Disease could now be understood as something that goes wrong inside cells. Cancer biology, stem cells and genetics all build on it.

Prerequisites

Unlocks

More in Biology & Genetics · Industrial Age

All 66 points in Biology & Genetics →

Open in the interactive tree →