Antonie van Leeuwenhoek is known as the Father of Microbiology, though he never set out to become a scientist. A draper by trade, he originally crafted his own lenses and microscopes simply to inspect the quality of the threads in his shop. Entirely self-taught, his relentless curiosity led him to create the most powerful microscopes of his time—and then to turn them toward the world around him.
In letters written in 1674, Leeuwenhoek described something extraordinary: “the abundant little animals on the teeth.” Using plaque scraped from his own mouth, he became the first human in history to witness the microbial world. He called these moving organisms animalcules. I often pause to imagine what that moment must have felt like—astonishment, disbelief, wonder—as he watched tiny living beings dance beneath his lens, unseen by human eyes until that instant.
More than three centuries later, I still feel that same excitement.
Each day, I am fortunate to use a phase-contrast microscope to observe the living oral microbiome in real time. What I see never fails to intrigue me. Beyond dental plaque, I have examined samples from noses, tonsils, and most recently—even a reusable water bottle—revealing vibrant, sometimes unsettling ecosystems hiding in plain sight. There is an entire unseen world living alongside us, and once you learn to look for it, you cannot unsee it. Continue reading in my blog, Seeing the unseen: Because seeing is believing
More topics from my blog
