Microscopy
Magnification extends human perception and new technologies make microscopes more affordable than ever. Learn more about microscopy and inexpensive options for field work.
The earliest optical or “light” microscopes date back to the seventeenth century, magnifying specimens beyond the range of normal human vision.
Early magnification was approximately 10x, or ten times the unaided eye, now microscopes that shine light through specimens can magnify over 1500x and electron microscopes developed in the 20th century magnify 200,000x. Most of the research topics discussed in this course requiring microscopic examination, or “microscopy,” would use an optical “light” microscope.
A bright light shines through a thin tissue of cells and finely ground glasses magnify the image. Both the eye pieces and specialized lenses called “objectives” magnify. From this image, if you have a 10x eye piece and a 10x objective, what is the total magnification?
answer: 100x
