Microscopes and Their Types

You may be familiar with microscopes. Microscopes are mechanical instruments used to view objects that are not visible to the naked eye, such as bacteria or viruses. Microscopy is the process of using a microscope, and uses the combined technologies of light reflection and optical science manipulated through lenses to study tiny objects at close quarters.

The setup of a basic microscope consists of a cylinder that provides a space of air between the eye piece (ocular lens) at the top and an objective lens at the bottom. The cylinder hovers over a stage containing an optical assembly on a rotating arm through a centered hole through which light shines from a U-shaped stand. The ocular lens has magnifying ranges specified like X5, X10 to X20 while the values for the objective lens are broader: X5, X10, X20, X40, X80, and X100. They provide the scientist with a range of possible distances and degrees of sharpness as may be necessary for analysis of small items.

There are various types of microscopes, each with specific feature sets:

Optical Microscope: It was the first type created, and has one or two lenses that work together to enhance images placed between the lower-most lens and the source of light.

Simple Optical Microscope-uses a single convex lens for magnification. This type of microscope was used by Anton Van Leeuwenhoek during the early seventeenth century, which is when the microscope itself was invented.

Compound Optical Microscope-sports two lenses, one for the eyepiece lens and another of shorter focal length for the objective lens. They work together to minimize chromatic and spherical aberrations of the object's view.

Inverted Microscope: It is widely used in tissue culture and cell cultures in liquid. This type of microscope views objects from an inverted position.

Stereo Microscope: Also called as the Dissecting Microscope, it uses two separate optical shafts to create a 3D image of the object in question through two different viewpoints. It is used in microsurgery, watch-making, dissection and printed circuit board (PCB) manufacturing.

Pocket Microscope: The pocket microscope has a single shaft with an eye piece at one end and an adjustable objective lens at the other end. It is slightly older-style but has a case for carrying easily.

Scanning Probe Microscope: This type of microscope is used to measure the interaction between a physical probe and a sample to form a micrograph. Only surface data can be collected and analyzed this way. The various types of Scanning Probe Microscopes are the Magnetic Force Microscope, the Atomic Force Microscope, the Scanning Tunneling Microscope, the Electric Force Microscope, and the Atomic Force Microscope.

Petrographic Microscope: This type of microscope has a polarizing filter, a gypsum plate, and a rotating stage. These microscopes specialize in the study of inorganic substances whose properties tend to alter with shifting perspectives.

Electron Microscopes: Electron microscopes have magnetic fields running parallel to electron waves providing for a higher resolution. Two types of Electron Microscopes are the Transmission Electron Microscope and the Scanning Electron Microscope.

Science wouldn't be what it is today without the microscope, as it is used throughout the world to measure and analyze tiny substances. It helps us look at ourselves and learn who we are and how we work.