The microscope was a slow process and sometimes random findings, by scientists but also of simple artisans. It is thanks to this series of discoveries and small steps that the optical microscope was born and grew.
property of lenses and mirrors were known since antiquity, but were never studied sistematico.Gli same problems that blocked the development of the telescope, also prevented the advancement of microscopy, optics linked to that. Higher members of this advancement are Galileo, Cornelius Drebbel, Anthony van Leeuwenhoeck, Robert Hooke . The theory of optical microscope
progressed rapidly, but so did the practice: in fact for many centuries the most used tool was the simple microscope. The latter is, for example, that of van Leeuwenhoeck or with a single lens system, while of the dialed is an example of what Hooke was not competitive for a long time because of the difficulty of construction and defects of the lenses. Only the improvements introduced by the microscope Giovanni Battista Amici and Ernst Abbe situazione.I allowed to change the technological advances brought on, in modern times to X-ray microscopy and electronic ones.
chronicles report that the microscope was founded in 1590 in a Dutch lens maker's shop, just as the telescope twenty years later. The development of the telescope however, is quick and overwhelming, while his brother remains for more than fifty years forgotten along with other quirky objects that filled his time. Why the difference? The telescope had revolutionized astronomy, a discipline from ancient traditions, and so had become the symbol of the new science that within a few decades would have wiped out the ancient tradition of Aristotle. Instead of a microscopic reality not imagine even the existence, let alone was the focus of philosophical clashes. The first models did not even aroused great interest, they simply show the ordinary world of everyday life just a little 'more magnified. Yet the path of the microscope was already sealed. But it takes years to slow and focus be improved, but eventually the microscope awakens the interest of scientists.
The work confirms the reputation of this tool is the "Micrographia" Hooke, published in 1665. It is not only the precision of observations that determine the success of the book, since the use of beautiful and detailed pictorial. Scientists are impressed by that monstrous and exotic world, full of flies and lice from the compound eyes hairy legs! The "Micrographia" is immediately adopted by the European universities, and remains in use for well over a century. As if to say that the book on which you are studying may be the 1900 or so!
Leeuwenhoeck Antony van (1632-1723)
The story takes an unexpected turn when the microscope of the cross Leeuwenhoeck , a curious figure of amateur science. Anthony van Leeuwenhoeck was a wealthy cloth merchant, the equally incredible dexterity and boundless curiosity. It is not a scientist and does not understand the Latin (which were written most of the scientific books of the time) but not lose heart. Home study achieves unsurpassed skill in cutting lenses, yielding magnifications much higher than those of other microscopists. His boundless curiosity does the rest, bringing it to examine not only insects but also parts of crystals, grains of pepper, seeds, blood, milk, crushed rocks and anything that happens under his hand!
The structure of the microscope used by Leeuwenhoeck in an exact replica modern
Simplicity and dimensions of this instrument is extraordinary.
summer of 1674 Leeuwenhoeck is pass by a pond and decides to submit to its slow even that water greenish and smelly. Imagine what was his surprise when he discovered a huge amount of tiny little creatures, much smaller than any insect or worm then known, and fluttered frantically! A new world opened before him, swarming with strange forms of animals. And all this in an ordinary drop of water! Leeuwenhoeck public comment. They are the first work that describes protozoa and bacteria, and have a huge resonance.
The microscope then becomes, suddenly, very popular: it is broken out fashion stagnant water!
Hosts of reputable scholars and amateurs leave the investigation of animal and vegetable tissues, which may have provided more interesting, and launch into passionate study in miniature of those worms that seem to be everywhere (Leeuwenhoeck believes himself to see them even in salt or in the dust!). From this research, mostly inspired by simple curiosity, you will slowly to a rigorous and systematic use of the microscope. Thanks to this extraordinary instrument
cells, observed for the first time by Hooke, will be recognized in the first half of the nineteenth century as the key elements of living matter. It will be one of the greatest revolutions in the history of science, and will mark the birth of microbiology.
also strides that medical research has done over the past 100-150 years, with everything that follows for our health, would have been unthinkable without the microscope. That will evolve and become even a scanning electron microscope and atomic then, increasing its size to "see" even the atoms. Today, the microscope is an invaluable tool in the laboratory, and became the very symbol of scientific research.
Think about it: what are the symbols of science? The atom surrounded by electrons, Einstein, the computer and the microscope. Not the telescope. Here, after five centuries, the tiny microscope has taken its well deserved revenge on his brother, the telescope!
Sources: Enkarta, Encyclopedia of the Republic.
Authors: Matthew Mayr, Kevin Zomer, Serena Martini.
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