Born near Dusseldorf, Germany, Schwann attended the University of Bonn, then did post-graduate work under Johannes Muller at the University of Wurzburg and the University of Berlin. He later took a position as the Chair of Anatomy at the University of Louvain, Belgium, moving later to the University of Liege. He never married. Schwann was described as a gentle man who led a simple life and avoided controversy. Schwann's foremost contribution to biology was the generalized cell theory he published in 1839, when he was 29, which showed that animals, like plants, are made entirely of cells. Although Matthias Schleiden had published his findings on plant cell structure earlier, Schwann's work was more comprehensive. Having discussed Schleiden's work over dinner together in October 1838, Schwann said it sounded similar to what he had been seeing in animal cells. After dinner the two went to Schwann's lab and discovered that the cell...