|
Before the invention of microscopes people believed that illnesses were the result of poisonous gases or evil spirits. Once the microscope was created and people could see viruses and bacteria, these beliefs began to change.
|
|
The very first microscopes were used to study insects, and they were nicknamed 'flea glasses'.
|
|
Many believe that Zacharias and Han Jansen created the first compound microscope in the 1590s, but others believe it was Cornelis Drebbel in the 1620s.
|
|
In 1625 the name 'microscope' was chosen by Giovanni Faber to reference the compound microscope created by Galileo Galilei's.
|
|
A compound microscope has at least two lenses, including one at the eye called the eye piece, and one at the end closest to the sample called the objective.
|
|
In 1665 a man named Robert Hooke published a book that included images (hand-drawn) of samples seen under the microscope's lens. His book was titled Micrographia.
|
|
A microscope works because it is able to distinguish close structures as separate structures.
|
|
Robert Hooke is credited with the discovery of cells, after studying a cork under the microscope.
|
|
Taste buds and red blood cells were identified by Marcello Marpighi. He is known as the father of microscopic anatomy.
|
|
Antony van Leeuwenhoek invented a single lens microscope in the 1660s that could magnify a sample 200 times.
|
|
Antony van Leeuwenhoek is credited with discovering cells in plant tissue, and in animal and human blood and tissue.
|
|
Robert Koch, a German physician and microbiologist, is credited with discovering cholera bacilli and tuberculosis.
|
|
Compound microscopes today are so advanced that they can magnify a sample as many as 1000 times.
|
|
When a sample under the microscope is photographed (the magnified image) it is called a micrograph.
|
|
An electron microscope uses electrons instead of light to create the magnified image. The first electron microscope was the transmission electronic microscope, invented in 1931 by Ernst Ruska.
|
|
The scanning electron microscope was invented in 1935 by Max Knoll.
|
|
The scanning probe microscope was created in the 1980s, by Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer.
|
|
The atomic force microscope was created in 1986 by Gerd Bennig.
|
|
A 500 nanometer long object was the smallest sample seen through a light microscope.
|
|
When preparing a sample to view under a microscope, sometimes it is stained to make it more visible.
|
|
Microscopes are used for a variety of purposes. They are used for medical purposes, in the diagnosis of illnesses. They are used for biology research, scientific research, medical research, and in environmental scientific research.
|
