What are some of Robert Hooke's scientific discoveries?

Robert Hooke discovered the law of elasticity, which says that the stretching of a solid body, such as metal or wood, has a proportional relationship to the force that is used on the object. The law is known as Hooke's law in honor of its discoverer.

Hooke is also notable for his discovery of diffraction and his use of the wave theory of light to explain the phenomenon. Hooke was among the first to advocate for a theory of evolution and the first to use the word "cell" to describe the microscopic cavities that exist in cork. Hooke taught at Gresham College as a professor of geometry.