Final answer:
Robert Hooke clashed with Isaac Newton in terms of scientific ideas and approaches. Hooke's diverse contributions touched upon physics, biology, and urban planning. His observations in microbiology set the stage for Anton van Leeuwenhoek's detailed studies of cells and microbes.
Step-by-step explanation:
The famous scientist that Robert Hooke 'locked horns with' was Isaac Newton. Their rivalry was well-documented in the annals of science history. Hooke was not only the assistant of another famous scientist, Robert Boyle, and helped in formulating Boyle's Law, but he was also a preeminent scientist in his own right.
Hooke made significant contributions to the scientific community during his role as the Royal Society's curator of experiments and later as a professor of geometry. His work extended to various disciplines, including the law of elasticity through Hooke's law. When it came to documenting microscopic observations, Hooke published Micrographia in 1665, and soon after, Anton van Leeuwenhoek captured detailed structures of cells and microbes with his self-made microscopes, thus advancing the field of microbiology.