The microscope

A microscope is an instrument used to see objects that are too small to be seen by
the naked eye. Microscopy is the science of investigating small objects and
structures using such an instrument. Microscopic means invisible to the eye unless
aided by a microscope.
There are many types of microscopes, and they may be grouped in different ways.
One way is to describe the way the instruments interact with a sample to create
images, either by sending a beam of light or electrons to a sample in its optical
path, or by scanning across, and a short distance from the surface of a sample
using a probe. The most common microscope (and the first to be invented) is the
optical microscope, which uses light to pass through a sample to produce an
image. Other major types of microscopes are the fluorescence microscope, the
electron microscope (both the transmission electron microscope and the scanning
electron microscope) and the various types of scanning probe microscopes.
For millennia, the smallest thing humans could see was about as wide as a human
hair. When the microscope was invented around 1590, suddenly we saw a new
world of living things in our water, in our food and under our nose .
The first microscope was created by Zacharias Janssen in around the year 1590.
The early Janssen microscopes were compound microscopes, which use at least
two lenses. The objective lens is positioned close to the object and produces an
image that is picked up and magnified further by the second lens, called the
eyepiece.
Suddenly after the invention of the microscope humanity started seeing living
beings in the water they drank, the food they ate and, on the surfaces, and objects
they were so used to.
In conclusion the microscope literally changed the way we see the world around
us.
Cox, Lauren. “Who Invented the Microscope?” LiveScience, Purch, 14 Sept. 2013, www.livescience.com/39649-who-invented-the-
microscope.html.

“Microscope.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 27 Mar. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microscope.

“Resolution.” Nikon's MicroscopyU, www.microscopyu.com/microscopy-basics/resolution.

Nowadays there are many types of microscopes with different attributes the most
popular being the electron microscopes, the fluorescence microscopes and the
scanning tunneling microscope.
An electron microscope is a microscope that uses a beam of accelerated electrons
as a source of illumination. As the wavelength of an electron can be up to 100,000
times shorter than that of visible light photons, electron microscopes have a
higher resolving power than light microscopes and can reveal the structure of
smaller objects. A scanning transmission electron microscope has achieved better
than 50 pm resolution in annular dark-field imaging mode and magnifications of
up to about 10,000,000× whereas most light microscopes are limited by
diffraction to about 200 nm resolution and useful magnifications below 2000×.

Electron microscopes use shaped magnetic fields to form electron optical lens
systems that are analogous to the glass lenses of an optical light microscope.

Electron microscopes are used to investigate the ultrastructure of a wide range of

biological and inorganic specimens including microorganisms, cells, large
molecules, biopsy samples, metals, and crystals. Industrially, electron microscopes
are often used for quality control and failure analysis. Modern electron
microscopes produce electron micrographs using specialized digital cameras and
frame grabbers to capture the images.

A fluorescence microscope is an optical microscope that uses fluorescence and

phosphorescence instead of, or in addition to, scattering, reflection, and
attenuation or absorption, to study the properties of organic or inorganic
substances. "Fluorescence microscope" refers to any microscope that uses
fluorescence to generate an image, whether it is a more simple set up like an
epifluorescence microscope or a more complicated design such as a confocal

Cox, Lauren. “Who Invented the Microscope?” LiveScience, Purch, 14 Sept. 2013, www.livescience.com/39649-who-invented-the-
microscope.html.

“Microscope.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 27 Mar. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microscope.

“Resolution.” Nikon's MicroscopyU, www.microscopyu.com/microscopy-basics/resolution.

microscope, which uses optical sectioning to get better resolution of the
fluorescence image.
Scanning Tunneling Microscope (STM) is an instrument for imaging surfaces at the
atomic level. STM is based on the concept of quantum tunneling. When a
conducting tip is brought very near to the surface to be examined, a bias (voltage
difference) applied between the two can allow electrons to tunnel through the
vacuum between them. The resulting tunneling current is a function of tip
position, applied voltage, and the local density of states (LDOS) of the sample.
Information is acquired by monitoring the current as the tip's position scans
across the surface and is usually displayed in image form. STM can be a
challenging technique, as it requires extremely clean and stable surfaces, sharp
tips, excellent vibration control, and sophisticated electronics, but nonetheless
many hobbyists have built their own.

The resolution of an optical microscope is defined as the shortest distance

between two points on a specimen that can still be distinguished by the observer
or camera system as separate entities. The limit of resolution of a microscope
objective refers to its ability to distinguish between two closely spaced Airy disks
in the diffraction pattern. Resolution is a somewhat subjective value in optical
microscopy because at high magnification, an image may appear unsharp but still
be resolved to the maximum ability of the objective. Numerical aperture
determines the resolving power of an objective, but the total resolution of the
entire microscope optical train is also dependent upon the numerical aperture of
the substage condenser. The higher the numerical aperture of the total system,
the better the resolution.

Cox, Lauren. “Who Invented the Microscope?” LiveScience, Purch, 14 Sept. 2013, www.livescience.com/39649-who-invented-the-
microscope.html.

“Microscope.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 27 Mar. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microscope.

“Resolution.” Nikon's MicroscopyU, www.microscopyu.com/microscopy-basics/resolution.