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What are two technologies that helped make cell theory possible?

There are no doubt various answers to this question, but two technologies that allowed major tenets of cell theory to be established are the microscope and x-ray crystallography.


The microscope was essential in discovering one aspect of cell theory--that the cell is the basic structural and functional unit of life. The microscope allowed scientists to directly observe that all life was composed of similar units. Later microscopes with higher magnification showed the cells' organelles; there were differences in what types of organelles were present, but similar types of organization became apparent.


X-ray crystallography helped establish another part of cell theory--that DNA is used to transmit genetic information. X-ray crystallography was used by Rosalind Franklin to create photographs that were then used by James Watson and Frances Crick to determine the structure of DNA. The double-helix shape (with complementary base pairs, an earlier discovery) provided a mechanism for how genetic information was transmitted from parent to offspring, and that DNA therefore was the molecule involved in genetics.

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