Where access is obtained, the focus is on the application of the microscope, disengaging the public from the principles of function and in doing so from much of the impact. Although public access to microscopy, either through school, or via commercial toys and educational products, has increased in recent years, it remains limited for many. Unfortunately, despite all this significance and underlying simplicity, the principles and impact of the microscope remains distant for not only most members of the public, but in fact many of the research-based end users. It is a simple, elegant and extremely powerful concept. However, what is remarkable is that despite these advances, the microscope remains at its core the same, simple, compound lens optical instrument developed by Hooke and his contemporaries nearly 400 years ago.Īll optical microscope platforms, from a standard widefield, to the scanning confocal, STED and others are based on a high power, short focal length objective paired with a low power, long focal length eyepiece lensĦ. It is a complex instrument combining advances in optics, detection, light generation, computation and engineering. The modern microscope has evolved to include, amongst others, phase contrast, darkfieldĥ. Seminal work by Robert HookeĢ and others in the 1600’s showed, for the first time, the microscopic world and laid the pathway to our modern deep understanding of the cell and the fundamental building blocks of life and disease. Arising in the 1600’s during the emergence from the dark ages, the microscope, its development and its revelations, helped lead the world into, through and then beyond, the scientific Age of Enlightenment. The history of the microscope shadows that of the modern scientific revolutionġ. By providing the ability to directly observe the microscopic world, microscopy has underpinned discoveries across the breadth of all science disciplines. The microscope is perhaps one of the most symbolic instruments in science and microscopy, and one of the highest impact technologies in all of science.
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