Hans Lippershey (1570 – 1619) was a German-Dutch spectacle maker and commonly associated with the invention of the telescope. Lippershey held the first patent for the telescope and laid claim to a device that could magnify objects three times.

Zacharias Janseen (1585-1632) was a Dutch-spectacle maker with his Father, Hans Janseen and associated with the invention of the optical telescope. If historians are correct in their suspicions that the first microscope was designed in 1590, it would have made Zacharias five-years old at the time. So, historians suggest that perhaps the design was originally done by his Father and Grandfather, Hans Martens.

It wasn’t until 1665 where artist and researcher, Robert Hooke (1635 – 1703) published ‘Micrographia’, a book that contained hand illustrated images he drew while observing under the microscope. It was Hooke that first discovered what we now know as ‘cells’. Today, many researchers continue to draw hand illustrated images.

The ‘Father of Microbiology’ is considered to be Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (1632 – 1723) who would grind his own lenses increasing the magnification of a lens up to 200-times which allowed him to discover blood cells. He was also the first to see the living sperm cells of animals.

Over time many scientists and researchers have contributed to a history of work and with the invention of photography in 1822 by Frenchman,  Nicéphore Niépce we have continued to build open technology and found new ways to see ‘Unseen Worlds’ under the microscope. It is believed that the first digital microscope was manufactured in Japan in 1986 and was considered a groundbreaking instrument as it was built from a control box and lens connected to a camera which opened a new realm of possibilities.

Today, images like those exhibited in the Unseen Worlds projection are possible because of the research and discovery of scientists throughout history.