Robert Hooke

Biography

Born on the Isle of Wight, England. He was educated at Oxford, where he worked as an assistant to Robert Boyle. He became the first Curator of Experiments of the Royal Society, later its Secretary. After the Great Fire of London, he participated in the city's reconstruction as an architect. He was forced to engage in bitter priority disputes with Newton and Huygens.

Key discoveries

• Hooke's Law (law of elasticity): he established that the deformation of a solid body is proportional to the applied force, expressing this with the famous anagram 'ceiiinosssttuv' (Latin: ut tensio, sic vis).
• Hypothesis of the inverse-square law of gravity: in correspondence with Newton (1679–1680), he suggested that the force of gravity decreases with the square of the distance, which Newton later used.
• Cellular structure of organisms: he was the first to use the word 'cell' after observing cork through a microscope, which became the basis of cell theory.
• Foundational microscopy: in his book 'Micrographia', he published detailed drawings of insects, plants, and materials, showing for the first time the complexity of the microworld.