MICROSCOPY

• Microscopy is the discipline  that involves using a microscope to study organisms
• Components of light microscope

  • Glass slides 
  • Visible light
  • Lenses refract/bend the light so that the image is magnified
• Important parameters of microscopy include magnification, resolution, and contrast.
• Magnification is the ratio of an image’s actual size relative to its real size
• Resolution is the clarity of the image; minimum distance of two distinguishable points
• Highest level of clarity is through electron microscopes
• Contrast is the visible differences between light and dark
• Special kinds of light microscopes

  • Unstained
  • Stained
  • Phase-contrast (uses special lens to bend the light) 
  • Differential interference contrast/Nomarski
• Various dyes in light microscopy

  • Fluorescence 
  • Deconvolution 
  • Confocal
• Electron microscopes study the internal structures of cells
• Two types of electron microscopes

  • Scanning electron microscope
  • Transmission electron microscope
• The scanning electron microscope studies 3D specimens
• The transmission electron microscope studies sliced images or ultrathin sections of specimens
• The transmission electron microscope uses a beam of electrons when studying specimens
• A micrometer is a millimeter divided by one thousand
• • Light microscope caen only magnify until 1,000x