1676
Antonie van Leeuwenhoek observes "animalcules" through a hand-ground lens, the first documented sighting of microbial life.
1847 - 1861
Semmelweis links hand-washing to lower infection rates, and Pasteur disproves spontaneous generation, laying the groundwork for germ theory.
1854 - 1884
Pacini, Koch, and Gram establish that specific bacteria cause specific diseases and develop the staining methods still used today.
1892 - 1917
Ivanovsky, Beijerinck, and d'Herelle discover viruses and bacteriophages as agents distinct from bacteria.
1928
Alexander Fleming's contaminated culture plate leads to the discovery of penicillin, opening the antibiotic era.
1944 - 1953
Avery, Hershey, Chase, Watson, Crick, and Franklin establish DNA as the genetic material and reveal its double-helix structure.
1977
Carl Woese's rRNA sequencing reveals Archaea as a domain of life distinct from Bacteria.
1983
Barre-Sinoussi and Montagnier isolate HIV; the same year, Kary Mullis conceives PCR, launching the molecular era.
1995 - 1996
The first bacterial and archaeal genomes are fully sequenced, opening the genomic era.
2012
Doudna and Charpentier adapt bacterial CRISPR into a programmable gene-editing tool.
2020
SARS-CoV-2 is identified and sequenced within weeks of the first reported cases.