A microscope (from the Greek words "small" and "look") is an optical device designed to obtain enlarged images of an object in order to study this object. The microscope is used mainly in laboratories of scientists - physicians, biologists, etc. With the help of a microscope, designers determine the shape, dimensions and many other parameters for some microelements of a complex technical device.

It is difficult to say who was the inventor of the microscope. According to one version, the laurels should be divided by the Dutch master of glasses Hans Janssen and his son Zachary, who, allegedly, designed the first microscope in 1590. But this version is more than doubtful, since it is based only on the statement of Zaharija Janssen himself, which in the named year, by the way, was just born. There is an opinion that the inventor of the microscope was Anton van Leeuwenhoek. But this famous scientist, in fact, extremely developed, improved the device, but did not invent "from scratch." Thus, the name of the first inventor of the microscope is still lost in the haze of centuries. It remains only to note that even the ancient Romans wrote about the magnifying properties of water-filled transparent vessels (Seneca).

The optical system of the microscope consists of an objective and an eyepiece, which are fixed in a movable tube located on a metal base. The construction of the majority of modern microscopes includes a lighting system (for example, a condenser with an iris diaphragm), screws for adjusting the sharpness (brightness) of the image. In the eyepiece, the eye of the bacterial scientist or designer who is developing the microelement directly looks. It goes without saying that the quality of the image observed in the eyepiece depends on how the object is illuminated. Once researchers had to be satisfied with the sun and other natural sources of light. Then, to enhance the effect of these sources, the mirror was used, and the next step was the use of a concave mirror for the same purpose. Today, to regulate lighting, microscopes are equipped with capacitors, which are a system of, as a rule, two or three short-focus lenses.

Do not waste time explaining why a microscope lens. Actually, the lens, so to speak, and "takes" an enlarged image of the object. The investigated object is located on a stage, which can be moved to the "field of view" of the lens. It should be noted some auxiliary devices, the use of which increases the efficiency of the microscope. First of all, we are talking about slides. This is the name of the glass plate, which is placed under the object of observation located on the object table. Later, a cover glass was also invented, which covers the microscopic preparation (ie the object of observation). The use of cover glasses made it possible to create collections of macroscopic preparations: histological collections, samples of rock samples, and the like.

A microscope is a device without which modern scientific research is simply not conceivable. Therefore, developments in the field of improving the microscope do not stop for a day. One of the latest achievements is the so-called nanoscope, designed in 2006 by German scientists from the Institute of Biophysical Chemistry Stefan Hellm and Mariano Bossi. The nanoscope allows you to see the smallest details and allows you to get high-quality three-dimensional images of objects.

"RONBO.RU" Moscow
2007