Microscope is made up of two Greek words which are micros and scope. Micros means small and scope means to look hence the term microscope literally means looking small object. A Microscope is an instrument that helps to see small objects more clearly by magnifying them visually.
The microscope is generally to study small objects such as microscopic organisms, molecules, cells, tissues etc. microscope is the most important device in the field of microscopy. It is through the use of a microscope that we humans can see and study different organisms which otherwise is invisible to the naked human eye.
Microscope has a long history as it is believed to be established in the 17th century. Since there is no proper document about the inventor of the device we still can’t confirm who the inventor of the microscope is. Some groups claim that the first microscope was seen in the city of Netherland during the 20s decade of the seventeenth century.
The name of the inventor is said to be Cornelis Drebbel. While there are other groups of people who believe the instrument was developed by Hans Lippershey. Also, there are other different types of claims regarding the invention of the device. Nevertheless, the invention of the device is a major invention in science which helped science move forward rapidly. Many breakthrough discoveries were done with the help of microscope.
Today the microscope is more sophisticated and advanced as compared to what it was back then. There are various major types of microscope found in the market which are as described below:
Optical microscope
The most common type of microscope is the optical microscope. It is the most primitive type of microscope. These microscopes have a general capacity of magnifying objects up to around 1500 times. The magnifying power of the device can be increased through the use of lights with a shorter wavelength. The optical microscope has been upgraded to digital optical microscope that is more suited to study sensitive biological samples.
Electron microscope
Electron microscope is more advanced microscope than the optical microscope. These types of microscope have higher magnifying capacity than the typical optical microscope. Unlike optical microscope that uses the light rays to generate a magnified image,
the electron microscope uses electrons for the generation of the image. The first kind of electron microscope was developed in the 1930s and quickly got popular during the period of world war two. The credit for the development of the electron microscope goes to Ernst Ruska. The major types of electron microscopes are:- Scanning electron microscope.
- Transmission electron microscope
- Hybrid instrument