“All in a Drop: How Antony van Leeuwenhoek Discovered an Invisible World,”
by Lori Alexander, illustrated by Vivien Mildenberger.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Boston, 2019, 93 pages, Grades 5-7.
Before the 1650s it was impossible to know anything about the inner structure of most objects. No one would think of slicing a vegetable into small strips to examine its biological make-up. After all, most people did not know or believe that things like cells existed or how they were created.
The common thinking of the time was spontaneous generation. Under this peculiar understanding, things like bugs and insects would just spontaneously come to life from mud or garbage. But this didn’t make sense to a young Dutchman named Antony van Leeuwenhoek. Surely life begins in a more complicated manner. With this idea, van Leeuwenhoek starts a lifelong pursuit of understanding biology and the structure of objects. Lori Alexander writes about the Dutchman’s life in this interesting biography entitled “All in a Drop: How Antony van Leeuwenhoek Discovered an Invisible World.”
Antony Leeuwenhoek is born in 1634 in Delft, Netherlands. His mother is widowed when he is 6 years old. Never well off to begin with, Antony’s mother remarries and the boy is sent away to boarding school. There, he learns to read and write Dutch and eventually becomes a draper’s apprentice.
Drapers sell cloths and linens and use magnifying glasses to determine the quality of the material. This is the first time that young Antony realizes that you can discover more about the nature of an object than is possible to see with a naked eye. In a few years, he marries and buys a house and works as a draper. But his curiosity has increased and he begins to examine all types of plants and insects with magnifying glasses. In fact, he wonders if he can build a telescope to look at small things, not just large objects in the heavens.
With this, he builds his first model that will become the basis of what becomes his microscope designs. Leeuwenhoek is stunned as he keeps discovering that common natural elements such as leaves have complex hidden patterns which are now able to be seen through his microscopes.
Being completely self-taught and unable to speak Latin, Antony cannot communicate with other scientists. Nevertheless, he begins sending letters of his experiments to the Royal Society in London. Founded to advance science, the Royal Society does not at first know what to make out of his experiments. But eventually, the genius of his work speaks for itself and they vote him membership in the Society. Completely uninterested in money or fame, Leeuwenhoek never signs the membership acceptance papers. But he continues to work and makes stunning discoveries. One of the most famous involves pond water. Why pond water?
What does Antony find in the water? How does his lack of formal education both help and hinder him in his experiments? When does he add “van” to his name? How many microscopes does he make? Have you ever used a microscope? How is it possible to see so much life through a microscope? Why is van Leeuwenhoek really the founder of microbiology? To find out the answers to these and other questions, go to the library and read this fascinating biography, “All in a Drop,” by Lori Alexander.
If you like science, this is the book for you. The discoveries of van Leeuwenhoek are fascinating to read about. Since he wasn’t formally trained in science, his imagination was not hemmed in by the acceptable explanations of the scientific world. This allowed Antony to make discoveries that were decades ahead of other scientists. This is why he was so successful. This is an excellent and interesting read.
The next time you see a microscope, you will know its origins. Enjoy!
