Cell Theory and Development

Cell theory has passed through various stages of understanding during the three centuries since researchers first noticed the existence of cells. Likewise, the role of cells in development has also gone through different interpretations. Theories have included an elementary conception of basic microscopic units in the mid-seventeenth century, a more fully articulated cell theory in the early nineteenth century which held that cells are the basic building blocks of living organisms, a later nineteenth-century conviction that the actions of cellular material actually bring about organic development and differentiation, and the idea that cells hold a key to evolutionary development as well. Controversies and disagreements about detail have occurred, but some version of cell theory and the fundamental role of cells in development has persisted.