1 A few types of cells are large enough to be seen by the unaided eye. The human egg (ovum) is the largest cell in the body, and can (just) be seen without the aid of a microscope. 2  Most cells are small for two main reasons:  The cellâs nucleus can only control a certain volume of active cytoplasm.
The atomic nucleus is the small, dense region consisting of protons and neutrons at the center of an atom, discovered in 1911 by Ernest Rutherford based on the 1909 GeigerâMarsden gold foil experiment.
Modern atomic theory is generally said to begin with John Dalton, an English chemist and meteorologist who in 1808 published a book on the atmosphere and the behavior of gases that was entitled A New System of Chemical Philosophy.