MICROSCOPES

Look at your hand…

One square centimeter of skin contains more than 100,000 cells.

No matter how closely you look with your eyes, you won’t be able to see individual skin cells.

How the heck did we figure out they were there?

With microscopes!

Microscopes are a form of technology

This technology had to be invented before we could know that cells existed.

So who invented this technology? 100a.d. Romans began “blowing glass”

to make shapes.

So who invented this technology? The Romans began experimenting with

this blown glass and discovered that if you looked through curved glass, it made things look bigger.

So who invented this technology? Someone also discovered that you can

focus the rays of the sun with one of these special “glasses” and start a fire. These early lenses were called magnifiers or burning glasses.

So who invented this technology? The word lens by the way, is derived

from the latin word lentil, as they were named because they resembled the shape of a lentil bean.

So who invented this technology? Around 1250 spectacle makers were

producing lenses to be worn as glasses.

So who invented this technology? The early simple “microscopes” were

really only magnifying glasses and had a magnification power of 6x to 10x. One thing that was very common and interesting to look at was fleas and other tiny insects. These early magnifiers were hence called “flea glasses”. 

So who invented this technology? Around 1590, a Dutch spectacle maker

named Hans Janssen put several lenses in a tube and discovered that he could see VERY tiny things.

So who invented this technology? Galileo heard about Janssen’s new

magnifier and began making refinements to his telescopes with the same ideas.

So who invented this technology? About 1660, an Englishman named

Robert Hooke made a compound microscope that had an oil lamp for lighting specimens. The light was focused onto the specimen and it could be seen in greater detail – not just the outline.

So who invented this technology? In about 1674, a Dutch fabric merchant

named Anthony van Leeuwenhoek began fiddling with ways to see the threads of his fabrics better.

So who invented this technology? He began looking at pond water and

discovered that it was ALIVE! He gave these tiny creatures the nickname “animalcules.”

So who invented this technology? Anthony also began finding interesting

stuff everywhere – even in the gunk on his own teeth! He eventually made microscopes that could magnify 266 times.

So who invented this technology? In about 1880, a German named Carl

Zeiss began making REALLY good compound microscopes, and we saw individual cells for the first time.

So who invented this technology? Even now, most good microscopes are

made in Germany or Japan. The cheap ones that you can buy as part of a science kit have plastic lenses that aren’t that great.

So who invented this technology? In 1933, a German named Ernst Ruska

created the first electron microscope. Transmission Electron Microscopes (TEM) send electrons through very thinly spiced specimens. They can magnify up to 500,000 times.

So who invented this technology? In 1965, Scanning Electron Microscopes

were invented. These send electrons over the surface of a specimen and create images that are almost like 3-D.

So who invented this technology? In 1981, the Scanning Tunneling

Microscope was invented. These measure electrons that leak from the surface of a specimen. These are the type used to “look” inside cells and cell organelles.