Microscope - a device that is intended to increase the image, as well as measurements of objects or parts of the structure that are invisible to the naked eye. Is a set of lenses. The set of production technologies and the practical use of microscopes called microscopy.
First microscope invented by mankind, were optical, and their first inventor is not easy to distinguish and name. The earliest information about microscope referred to 1590 and the city of Middelburg, in the Netherlands, and is associated with the name John Lippersgeya (who also developed the first simple telescope) and Hans Jansen, who were engaged in the production of glasses. A little later, in 1624, the year of Galileo is a compound microscope, which he originally called "okkiolino» (occhiolino Italian. - Small eyes). A year later, his friend from the Academy, Giovanni Faber proposed for a new invention, the term "microscope".
Microscope resolution - the ability to give a clear separation of the microscope image of two closely spaced points on the object. The degree of penetration into the microcosm, the possibility of its study depends on the resolution of the instrument. This characteristic is determined primarily by the wavelength of the radiation used in microscopy (visible, ultraviolet, X-rays). Fundamental limitation is the inability to get through electromagnetic radiation image of the object, smaller than the wavelength of the radiation. "To penetrate deeper" into the microcosm possible in the application of radiation with shorter wavelengths.
Depending on the required amount of permits considered particulate matter, microscopy, microscopes are divided into:
1. Optical microscopes.
2. Electron microscopes.
3. Scanning probe microscope.
4. X-ray microscopes.
5. Differential interference contrast-Mikros