Access to this video is a benefit for members through
Up Next
Back to Show
History with David Rubenstein
Siddhartha Mukherjee
Season 5
Episode 4
In the late 1600s, separated by the North Sea, English polymath Robert Hooke and Dutch cloth-merchant Antonie van Leeuwenhoek looked through their handmade microscopes. What they saw introduced a radical concept that swept through biology and medicine: complex living organisms are made up of tiny, self-contained, self-regulating units. Hooke christened them “cells.”
Support Provided By
Season
Unlock with PBS Passport
26:40
Candice Millard offers an extraordinary account of President Garfield’s career.
Unlock with PBS Passport
26:40
Marie Arana is the author of LatinoLand, to be published in 2024.
Unlock with PBS Passport
26:40
Jonathan Darman is a former correspondent for Newsweek and the author of several books.
Unlock with PBS Passport
26:40
Leslie M. Harris is professor of history and African American studies at Northwestern.
Unlock with PBS Passport
26:40
Craig L. Symonds is professor of history emeritus at the United States Naval Academy.
Unlock with PBS Passport
26:40
Richard Haass is the author of The Bill of Obligations: The Ten Habits of Good Citizens.
Unlock with PBS Passport
26:40
Beverly Gage is professor of 20th-century American history at Yale University.
26:40
Pulitzer Prize-winning author and National Humanities Medal recipient
26:40
Former president of Harvard University and author