Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Google Doodle marks Father of Microbiology’s 384th birthday

Designed by Doodler Gerben Steenks, today's Doodle pays tribute to the Dutch scientist credited with being the world's first microbiologist.

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Google is honoring Dutch-born scientist Antoni van Leeuwenhoek with a Doodle to mark his 384th birthday.

Known as the “Father of Microbiology,” van Leeuwenhoek designed the single-lens microscope and is credited with being the world’s first microbiologist — using the lens he invented to magnify microbes more than 200 times.

“In a letter to the Royal Society of London, van Leeuwenhoek marveled at what he had seen in a sample of water from a nearby lake: ‘little animals’ that we know now as bacteria and other microbes,” reports Google on the Google Doodle Blog.

The animated Doodle was designed by Doodler Gerben Steenks and leads to a search for “Antoni van Leeuwenhoek.” Steenks said he wanted to create a Doodle that reflected the “before and after” experience van Leeuwenhoek witnessed looking through his microscope.

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Google is sharing the Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Doodle across many of its international pages; you can see a full map of where the Doodle is posted on the Google Doodle Blog.


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Amy Gesenhues
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Amy Gesenhues was a senior editor for Third Door Media, covering the latest news and updates for Search Engine Land, MarTech and MarTech Today. From 2009 to 2012, she was an award-winning syndicated columnist for a number of daily newspapers from New York to Texas. With more than ten years of marketing management experience, she has contributed to a variety of traditional and online publications, including MarketingProfs, SoftwareCEO, and Sales and Marketing Management Magazine. Read more of Amy's articles.

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