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Subject: Microscope | |
Author: Anonymous |
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Date Posted: 16:21:40 01/21/16 Thu A microscope (from the Ancient Greek: μικρός, mikrós, "small" and σκοπεῖν, skopeîn, "to look" or "see") is an instrument used to see objects that are too small for the naked eye. The science of investigating small objects using such an instrument is called microscopy. Microscopic means invisible to the eye unless aided by a microscope. There are many types of microscopes. The most common (and the first to be invented) is the optical microscope, which uses light to image the sample. Other major types of microscopes are the electron microscope (both the transmission electron microscope and the scanning electron microscope), the ultramicroscope, and the various types of scanning probe microscope. On October 8, 2014, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Eric Betzig, William Moerner and Stefan Hell for "the development of super-resolved fluorescence microscopy," which brings "optical microscopy into the nanodimension" The first microscope to be developed was the optical microscope, although the original inventor is not easy to identify. Evidence points to the first compound microscope appearing in the Netherlands by the 1620s, with a likely inventor being Cornelis Drebbel. The first detailed account of the interior construction of living tissue based on the use of a microscope did not appear until 1644, in Giambattista Odierna's L'occhio della mosca, or The Fly's Eye. It was not until the 1660s and 1670s that the microscope was used extensively for research in Italy, the Netherlands and England. Marcelo Malpighi in Italy began the analysis of biological structures beginning with the lungs. Robert Hooke's Micrographia had a huge impact, largely because of its impressive illustrations. The greatest contribution came from Antonie van Leeuwenhoek who discovered red blood cells and spermatozoa and helped popularise microscopy as a technique. On 9 October 1676, Van Leeuwenhoek reported the discovery of micro-organisms. The performance of light microscopy depends as much on how the sample is illuminated as on how it is observed. Early instruments were limited until this principle was fully appreciated and developed, and until electric lamps were available as light sources. The first piece of fiction to involve the microcosm was probably Fitz-James O'Brien's "The Diamond Lens," which tells the story of a scientist who invents a powerful microscope and discovers a beautiful woman living in a microscopic world inside a drop of water. In 1893 August Köhler developed a key principle of sample illumination, Köhler illumination, which is central to achieving the theoretical limits of light microscopy. This method of sample illumination produces even lighting and overcomes the limited contrast and resolution imposed by early techniques of sample illumination. Further developments in sample illumination came from the discovery of phase contrast by Frits Zernike in 1953, and differential interference contrast illumination by Georges Nomarski in 1955; both of which allow imaging of unstained, transparent samples. [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ] |