The Light microscope

A light microscope as the name suggest depends on light to create an image of the specimen. It has a
resolution of 200nm and a magnification of x100 (100 times).

One technique utilised in preparing a specimen for light microscopy is wet mount. This technique is
used for aquatic and living samples. A drop of liquid is placed at the centre of the slide

How it works

1) Light from the room or an artificial light source shines onto an angled mirror. The light is then
reflected through the specimen on the slide above. The mirror can be manipulated to adjust the
amount of light captured and adjust the image brightness.
2) The light passes through a hole in a horizontal adjustable platform called a stage. It can be
adjusted closer or further away from the lens to adjust the focus of the image being viewed.
3) Light travelling from the mirror passes through the specimen (must be thin enough) on the slide
and into the objective lens
4) The objective lens make the first magnification this magnification is however an inverted image.
5) The inversion of the image is corrected by the lens of the eyepiece; which re-inverts the image.
6) The eye piece can be adjusted to fine tune focus of the image
Electron microscope

The electron microscope is one which uses a beam of accelerated electrons to create an image
of the specimen. An electron microscope fires a beam of electrons through a
specimen to produce a magnified image of an object. The
electron microscope is operated in a vacuum this is to prevent electrons from
hitting air particles and being reflected. Before specimens are examined they
must first be cut into very thin cross-sections. This is to allow electrons to pass through
the sample. After being fixed and dehydrated, samples are embedded in hard resin to make
them easier to cut. Then, an instrument cuts the samples into ultra-thin slices (100 nm or
thinner). TEM samples are also treated with heavy metals to increase the level of contrast in
the final image.
1. A high-voltage electricity supply powers the cathode.
2. The cathode is a heated filament; it generates a beam of electrons that
works like a beam of light in an optical microscope.
3. An electromagnetic coil intensifies the electrons into a more powerful
beam.
4. Another electromagnetic coil focuses the beam onto a specific part of
the specimen.
5. The specimen sits on a copper grid in the middle of the main
microscope tube. The beam passes through the specimen and "picks
up" an image of it.
6. The projector electromagnet magnifies the image.
7. The image becomes visible when the electron beam hits a fluorescent
screen at the base of the machine.
8. The image can be viewed through an eye piece at the side, or on a TV
monitor attached to an image intensifier (which makes weak images
easier to see).
 MICROSCOPE
PROPERTIES LIGHT ELECTRON
Resolution 200 nm 0.1 nm
Magnification X 1500 X 500,000
Specimen preparation
Energy requirements
Light microscopes date back to 1595, when Zacharias Jansen (1580–1638) of Holland invented
a compound light microscope, it utilised two lenses the second magnifying the image made by
the first. His microscopes produced magnifications up to nine times (9x).
Antony van Leeuwenhoek (1632–1723) invented a simple (one-lens) microscope around 1670
that magnified up to 200x and achieved twice the resolution of the best compound microscopes
of his day, mainly because he crafted better lenses. While others were making lenses by such
methods as squashing molten glass between pieces of wood, Leeuwenhoek made them by
carefully grinding and polishing solid glass. He thus became the first to see individual cells,
including bacteria, protozoans, muscle cells, and sperm.
Englishman Robert Hooke (1635–1703) further refined the compound microscope, adding such
features as a stage to hold the specimen, an illuminator, and coarse and fine focus controls.
Until 1800, compound microscopes designed by Hooke and others were limited to
magnifications of 30x to 50x, and their images exhibited blurry edges (spherical aberration) and
rainbowlike distortions (chromatic aberration). The most significant improvement in
microscope optics was achieved in the nineteenth century, when business partners Carl Zeiss
(1816–1888) and Ernst Abbe (1840–1905) added the substage condenser and developed
superior lenses that greatly reduced chromatic and spherical aberration, while permitting vastly
improved resolution and higher magnification.

Read more https://www.explainthatstuff.com/electronmicroscopes.html:

Reference

https://www.britannica.com/technology/transmission-electron-microscope

https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/magnification

https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/electron-microscopes
https://alevelnotes.com/notes/biology/cells/cell-structure/magnification

http://www.biologyreference.com/La-Ma/Light-Microscopy.html#ixzz63Ss4IbD0