Sneak preview: infocus Magazine March 2025 coming soon!

Our March issue of infocus Magazine is coming soon, and is set to feature an absorbing new article from RMS Honorary Fellow, Professor Brian Ford - a leading authority on microscope pioneer Antony van Leeuwenhoek.

With results both eye-catching and thought-provoking, Brian compares original drawings of what Leeuwenhoek saw, with present day reality.

Introducing Reflecting Realities – Leeuwenhoek’s Limner and the Engraving of Life, he writes: 

Historical accounts of Antony van Leeuwenhoek, the microscope pioneer, repeatedly refer to his drawings of microbes and of microscopic structure. In fact, not one of the drawings was made by his hand. Born 24 October 1632 in Delft, the Netherlands, he lived in that town all his life and died on 26 August 1723. From the age of forty he laid the groundwork for present-day microscopists with detailed and precise descriptions of the microscopic realm. This programme of research means that, for the first time, we can now reconcile the original drawings with present-day reality.

In a letter that Leeuwenhoek sent to Henry Oldenburg dated 15 August 1673, in which he had reported his observations on bees, the transport of sap in wood, the composition of air, and food for body lice, Leeuwenhoek added: ‘As I am not a draughtsman myself, I have had them drawn for me… ’ He said again to Oldenburg in his letter of 22 January 1676: ‘Sir, be assured that my microscope showed the same as clearly and distinctly as one can imagine to see figures with the naked eye but the fault is mine, since I cannot draw.’

The figures accompanying Leeuwenhoek’s letters were not his. But were they representative of reality?"

The full article will be published online in early March.