1-154-947 - Oxford Science Archive/Heritage Images

Louse clinging to a human hair in Hooke's Micrographia, 1665. Robert Hooke was born on the Isle of Wight, and studied at Oxford University. It was whilst at Oxford that he met Robert Boyle, and assisted him in the construction of an air pump. In 1660 he moved to London and two years later became one of the founder members of the Royal Society, at which he held the post of Curator of Experiments. Micrographia was published in 1665 and contains prints of some of the specimens Hooke viewed under the compound microscope that he designed.