Originally this was going to be one of those corny 1 of April spoofs, hence the title, for all those devotees who revel in such matters but then I decided this was not a subject for such brevity. Robert Hooke is one of two founding fathers of microscopy and should be respected for not only being such but as probably one of the most learned and accomplished scientists of his time. During January 1665 Hooke published, through the Royal Society of which he became Curator by Office, his book entitled Micrographia. Throughout he makes detailed accounts and observations of common objects viewed through one of his microscopes in addition to superbly drawn illustrations which must have amazed everyone who thumbed its pages. He had presented to the world a view of a microscopic world never seen by anyone before.

Above is a representation of Hooke’s microscope, modelled in Blender 3D, from the line drawing (Schem:1, Fig:5 and Fig:6) depicted in Micrographia. For all its inaccuracies and artistic licence, visualising a 3D representation helps put the individual components into context.