Introduction to Microscope
Introduction to Microscope
A microscope, a derivate of the Greek word, is a laboratory instrument that is used to examine objects that are too small to be seen by the naked eye. The magnification capacity of this laboratory instrument enables the visualization of microorganisms and their structures.
Several different types of microscopes have been developed with distinct principles and uses. Depending on the type of microscope, the magnification of the microscope ranges from X100 to X400,000.
History of Microscope
Objects resembling lenses dating back 4,000 years have been discovered while Greeks used water-filled spheres’ optical properties in the 5th century BC.
The earliest use of magnifying glasses (simple microscopes) was during the 13th century as lenses in eyeglasses. In 1620 Europe, compound microscopes – which use an objective lens near the specimen with an eyepiece to view a real image – were invented by an unknown person.
In 1610, Galileo Galilei found that he could close focus his telescope to view small objects and is considered the inventor of the microscope inventor. After observing a compound microscope built by Drebbel exhibited in Rome in 1624, Galileo Galilei created his own improved version and called it the occhiolino 'little eye'. Galileo Galilei’s instrument was renamed the microscope in 1625 Accademia dei Lincei.
Decades later, in 1644, Giambattista Odierna included microscopic anatomy of organic tissue in his book L'occhio della mosca, or The Fly's Eye. Eventually in the 1660s and 1670s microscope began to be widely used in biology.
The microscope was used by Italian scientist Marcello Malpighi to study biological structures with the lungs, Robert Hooke published Micrographia: or Some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies Made by Magnifying Glasses. With Observations and Inquiries Thereupon in 1665, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek achieved up to 300 times magnification.
Leeuwenhoek used the microscope to re-discover red blood cells, and spermatozoa and popularized the use of microscopes to visualize biological ultrastructures and discover micro-organisms.
Over the centuries, the compound microscope has been developed and upgraded with higher resolution.
Types of microscopes
In addition, many techniques have been developed for the preparation of specimens, and microorganisms for microscopic examination. Each destined preparation method for any type of microscopy has an advantage for the demonstration of specific morphological features.
One way to group types of the microscope is the method used by the instrument to interact with samples and produce images. Some such methods include:
Sending a beam of light or electrons through a sample in its optical path
Detecting photon emissions from a sample
Using a probe to scan across a short distance from the surface of the sample
On the basis of which magnification is based, the microscope is broadly categorized into two types – a light (optical, photon) microscope and an electron microscope or a probe (scanning) microscope.
Other types of microscope developed includes:
Phase contrast microscope
Differential interference contrast microscope
Transmission electron microscope
Scanning electron microscope
Scanning probe microscope
Fluorescence microscope