1. Cells are the basic unit of life and all organisms are composed of one or more cells. Some organisms like bacteria are unicellular while others like humans are multicellular. 2. The earliest observations of cells were made by Robert Hooke in 1665 and key discoveries were later made by Robert Brown, Theodor Schwann, Mattias Schleiden, and Rudolf Virchow establishing cells as the fundamental unit of life. 3. There are two main types of cells - eukaryotic cells with a nucleus and organelles, and prokaryotic cells without a nucleus. Eukaryotic cells can be single-celled or part of multicellular organisms.