Peckham, M. orcid.org/0000-0002-3754-2028 (2024) What is a microscope? How the microscope has evolved over three hundred and fifty years. In: Journal of Physics: Conference Series. HAPP Centre: 10th Anniversary Commemorative Volume, 03 Jun 2024, Oxford, United Kingdom. IOP Publishing
Abstract
The microscope is named from the Greek mikrós (small) and skopeîn (to see). The first light microscopes were described over three hundred and fifty years ago, building on the development of lenses for the telescope. The publication of Micrographia in 1665 popularised the microscope and yet its technological development only really took off in the 1800s in parallel with many other technological developments of the time. Key to building microscopes reproducibly was the theoretical understanding of how the image is formed in the microscope, developed by Ernst Abbe in the 1880s as part of his collaboration with Carl Zeiss. That eventually led to the standardisation of light microscopes with the help of the Royal Microscopical Society. The electron microscope was then invented in the 1930s, building on principles already uncovered for light microscopy. The microscope has continued to evolve to help us to see even smaller and smaller objects across the physical and life sciences, and it is a key tool for many scientists. This overview briefly summarises the development of the microscope from its early origins up to the present day.
Metadata
Item Type: | Proceedings Paper |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Biological Sciences (Leeds) > School of Molecular and Cellular Biology (Leeds) > Cell Biology (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 03 Jan 2025 11:43 |
Last Modified: | 03 Jan 2025 11:43 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | IOP Publishing |
Identification Number: | 10.1088/1742-6596/2877/1/012091 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:221236 |
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