Louis Chin, age 16, of Chattanooga, Tenn., for his question:

WHO WAS ANTHONY VAN LEEUWENHOEK?

Often called the father of modern bacteriology is Anthony van Leeuwenhoek, the man who was the first to create a microscope that was capable of seeing one celled animals and bacteria.

Here's how you pronounce his last name: LA ven huk.

Leeuwenhoek was born in the Netherlands in 1632. He became interested in grinding lenses and he learned to make microscopes that were far better than anything that had been known in his day. His microscopes consisted of a single small, short focus lens that was set between two pieces of metal.

The microscopes that Leeuwenhaek made weren't complex instruments yet they could magnify things up to 300 times their actual size.

One day in rainwater, Leeuwenhoek saw the „little animals„ that later came to be known as bacteria.

In 1676 he was made a fellow in the Royal Society of England, joining with other great scientists of his day. It was a high honor indeed for a man who had received very little formal education.