Microscope

• Organisms are made up of cells.
• Most organisms are multicellular and have cells that are specialised to do a particular job.
• Microscopes are needed to study cells in detail.
• In the 1590s, Dutch spectacle makers Janssen experimented with putting lenses in tubes, leading to the first compound microscope.
• Robert Hooke, also famous for his law of elasticity in Physics, observed and drew cells using a compound microscope in 1650.
• Antonie van Leeuwenhoek constructed a microscope with a single spherical lens in the late 1600s, magnifying up to ×275.
• The optical quality of lenses increased in the 1800s, leading to microscopes similar to the ones we use today.
• The maximum magnification with a light microscope is around ×1500.