He searched for a name for them and finally decided on cells, from cella, a Latin word meaning “small room.” (Hooke had not really seen “cells” but rather the outlines of walls that plant cells build around themselves; perhaps, nestled within them was an actual living cell, but there’s no illustration that proves the point.) “A great many little boxes,” as Hooke imagined them. Unwittingly, he had inaugurated a new conception of living beings, and of humans.
