What was discovered using an optical microscope. "Father" of the microscope or who invented this device

The history of the creation of the first microscope is full of secrets and conjectures. Even its inventor is not so easy to name. But it is reliably known that the very first records of the microscope date back to 1595. They bear the name of Zacharias Jansen, son of the Dutch spectacle maker Hans Jansen.

Zachary grew up as an inquisitive boy and spent a lot of time in his father's workshop. Once, in the absence of his father, he made an unusual pipe from a metal cylinder and scraps of glass. Its peculiarity was that when viewed through it, the surrounding objects increased in size, became much closer and seemed to be at arm's length. The boy tried to look at objects through the other end of the tube. Imagine his surprise when he saw them small and very distant.

Zakhary told his father about his unusual experience, who encouraged his son in every possible way on this path. Hans Jansen, without knowing it, improved the "magic" pipe - he replaced the metal cylinder with a system of tubes that could fold into each other. Now the examination of objects has become even more interesting, because they have become clearer and larger. Thanks to the changing length of the tube, it was possible to zoom in or out of the image, to examine small details, to see what was previously impossible to see with any glasses.

So, as a result of children's fun, historic discovery- the first microscope was created, and humanity got the opportunity to get acquainted with a new, hitherto unseen world - the world of microscopic creatures. And although the magnification of the microscope was only from 3 to 10 times, this was the greatest discovery in its significance!

Gradually, the rumor about the magnifying tube spread far beyond the borders of the Netherlands and reached Italy, where Galileo Galilei lived and taught astronomy at the university in the city of Padua. He very quickly realized the advantages of the new invention and based on this he created his own magnifying tube. Somewhat later, in his personal laboratory, Galileo Galilei set up the production of the simplest microscopes.

As time went on, in 1648 in the Netherlands there was an acquaintance with a microscope from the future founder of scientific microscopy, Anthony van Leeuwenhoek. This device so captivated the young Leeuwenhoek that he free time started to study scientific papers, dedicated to research microworld. In parallel with reading books, young Leeuwenhoek mastered the profession of a lens grinder, which later allowed him to create his own microscope with a magnification of up to 500 times. With his help he made a large number of significant discoveries. For example, he was the first to describe bacteria and ciliates, to discover and draw red blood cells - erythrocytes, eye lens fibers, muscle fibers and skin cells.

Simultaneously with Leeuwenhoek, another great scientist worked on improving the microscope, who introduced huge contribution microscopy - Englishman Robert Hooke. He not only designed a microscope model different from others, but also carefully studied the structure of plant cells and some animals, sketched their structure. In his scientific work under the title "Micrography" Hooke gave detailed description cell structure of elderberry, carrot, dill, fly eye, bee wing, mosquito larva and much more. By the way, it was Hooke who introduced the term "cell" and gave it a scientific definition.

As mankind developed, the structure of the microscope became more complicated and improved, new types of microscopes appeared, with greater magnifying power and higher quality Images. To date, there is a huge variety of microscopes - optical, electronic, scanning probe, X-ray. All of them are designed to magnify microscopic objects and study them in detail, but they are incomparably stronger and more versatile than light microscopes.

In order to understand what is happening in the micro- and mega-world, complex devices are required. The first steps towards understanding these worlds were the inventions of the microscope and telescope, respectively.

Even in the Middle Ages, it was known that with the help of curved glass, you can change visual perception. An English monk was an active promoter of the use of magnifiers and lenses. Roger Bacon who lived in the thirteenth century. Around the same time, people began to use glasses to correct visual defects. However, all these primitive optical instruments did not give the opportunity to see something new compared to what a person with normal vision can see. Attempts to enhance the magnifying effect of lenses led to the invention of the so-called compound microscope - a device consisting of two lenses (objective and eyepiece), passing through which light sequentially creates an enlarged image of the object under consideration on the sensitive shell of the eye. This happened at the end of the 16th or beginning of the 17th century, but who was the first inventor of such a microscope is not known exactly. In any case, in 1609, Galileo for the first time demonstrated to the scientific community the device he had designed, which he called “occhiolino”, which means “ small eye". Perhaps this was the first microscope, although later there were other contenders for this invention. The very word "microscope" was coined by Galileo's friend Giovanni Faber, by analogy with the telescope that already existed at that time.

However, the first microscopes did not allow obtaining a clear image due to imperfect glass polishing. Despite this, Robert Hooke in 1664, while examining a section of cork, he discovered cells. A true revolution in development microscopic studies produced in 1674 by a Dutchman Anthony van Leeuwenhoek(Fig. 95, A).

Rice. 95. Microscopes: A - Leeuwenhoek's microscope was extremely simple and was a plate, in the center of which there was a lens; B – modern light microscope; B - electron microscope

While working as a watchman in the local town hall, during his duty he practiced grinding lenses and soon reached such perfection that, simply by looking at a drop of water through a lens he had polished in suitable lighting, he saw completely new world. It was a world of living organisms unknown to anyone until then, which Leeuwenhoek called "little animals." For this discovery, he was elected a corresponding member of the Royal Society of London, although he did not understand any science at all.

Later, improved lens grinding techniques made it possible to increase resolution compound microscope (Fig. 95, B). This term refers to the ability of a microscope to create a clear separate image of two points on an object. Simply put, these are the smallest dimensions of an object that can be distinguished under a microscope. Everything that we see in general and in a microscope in particular is a reflection of light from the object under consideration. But we know what light is electromagnetic wave, which has such qualities as frequency and length. In addition, such waves, like all others, have the property of diffraction, i.e., the ability to bend around small objects. Due to diffraction, it is impossible to distinguish objects smaller than half the wavelength of reflected light under a microscope. Recall that the wavelength electromagnetic radiation in the visible part of the spectrum is approximately 400 to 700 nm. This means that traditional optical microscopes that use as a light source visible light, can allow us to see objects whose dimensions are not less than this value (Fig. 96). Therefore, the maximum magnification that can be achieved with their help cannot be more than 2000.

In order to increase resolution, it is required to illuminate the object under consideration with radiation whose wavelength is shorter than that of visible light.

Rice. 96. Eye of a dragonfly, visible when observed with the naked eye (A) and under a microscope (B)

Rice. 97. Telescope of Galileo.

Electrons turned out to be such radiation. At the beginning of the XX century. it was found that the electron can be considered not only as a particle, but also as radiation, with a wavelength in the range of X-rays. And since electrons, unlike light, also have electric charges, their rays can be focused using magnetic lenses. Based on these ideas, in 1931, the development began electron microscope, allowing to obtain an image of objects with an increase of up to a million times (Fig. 95, B). In the future, the technique of creating microscopes was constantly improved, and now modern microscopes make it possible to see even individual atoms.

The study of objects located on long distances from the Earth and belonging to the mega-world, began with the invention telescope(Fig. 97). The telescope was preceded by a spyglass or, as it was called, a spotting scope, which had been in use since the beginning of the 17th century. However, it did not become widespread until the moment it fell into the hands of Galileo. He improved this device and for the first time in 1609 he guessed to direct this pipe to the sky, thereby turning it into a telescope. Although Galileo's device was rather primitive, the scientist managed to increase its magnifying ability from three to thirty-two times in a few years, which allowed him to make a number of important discoveries. More details about subsequent improvements to the telescope and the research carried out with their help will be discussed in the next chapter. And now we will continue to get acquainted with the structure of the microworld.

Since ancient times, man has wanted to see things much smaller than the naked eye can perceive. Who first began to use lenses is now impossible to say, but it is known for certain, for example, that our ancestors knew more than 2 thousand years ago that glass was able to refract light.

In the second century BC, Claudius Ptolemy described how a stick “bends” when dipped in water, and even calculated the refractive constant very accurately. Even earlier in China, devices were made from lenses and a tube filled with water to “see the invisible”.

In 1267, Roger Bacon described the principles of lenses and general idea telescope and microscope, but it was not until the end of the 16th century that Zachary Jansen and his father Hans, spectacle makers from Holland, began experimenting with lenses. They placed several lenses in a tube and found that objects viewed through it looked much larger than under a simple magnifying glass.

But this “microscope” of theirs was more of a curiosity than a scientific instrument. A description of the instrument that father and son made for the royal family has been preserved. It consisted of three sliding tubes with a total length of 45 cm and a diameter of 5 cm. When closed, it magnified 3 times, when fully opened - 9 times, however, the image turned out to be a little blurry.

In 1609, Galileo Galilei created a compound microscope with convex and concave lenses, and in 1612 presented this "occhiolino" ("small eye") to King Sigismund III of Poland. A few years later, in 1619, the Dutch inventor Cornelius Drebbel demonstrated in London his version of the microscope, with two convex lenses. But the word “microscope” itself appeared only in 1625, when, by analogy with “telescope”, it was coined by a German botanist from Bamberg, Johann (Giovanni) Faber.

From Leeuwenhoek to Abbe

In 1665, the English naturalist Robert Hooke perfected a magnifying tool and discovered the elementary structural units, cells, by studying the cork oak bark. 10 years after that, the Dutch scientist Anthony van Leeuwenhoek managed to get even better lenses. His microscope magnified objects 270 times, while other similar devices barely reached 50 times magnification.

Thanks to his high-quality ground and polished lenses, Lenvenhoek made many discoveries - he was the first to see and describe bacteria, yeast cells, and observed the movement of blood cells in capillaries. In total, the scientist made at least 25 different microscopes, of which only nine have survived to this day. There are suggestions that some of the lost devices even had a 500x magnification.

Despite all the advances in this area, over the next 200 years, microscopes have not changed much. It was not until the 1850s that the German engineer Carl Zeiss began to improve the lenses for microscopes that his company produced. In the 1880s he hired Otto Schott, a specialist in optical glasses. His research has significantly improved the quality of magnifying instruments.

Another employee of Carl Zeiss, the optical physicist Ernst Abbe, improved the very process of manufacturing optical instruments. Previously, all work with them was carried out by trial and error; Abbe, on the other hand, created a theoretical foundation for them, scientifically based manufacturing methods.

With the development of technology, the microscope that we know now appeared. Now, however, optical microscopes capable of focusing on objects that are larger than or equal to length waves of light, could no longer satisfy scientists.

Modern electron microscopes

In 1931, the German physicist Ernst Ruska began work on the creation of the first electron microscope (transmission (transmission) electron microscope). In 1986, he received the Nobel Prize for this invention.

In 1936, the German scientist Erwin Wilgel Müller invented the electron projector (field electron microscope). The device made it possible to magnify the image of a solid body millions of times. Fifteen years later, Muller made another breakthrough in this area - the field-ion microscope, which gave the physicist the opportunity to see atoms for the first time in the history of mankind.

In parallel, other work was carried out. In 1953, the Dutchman Fritz Zernike, professor of theoretical physics, received the Nobel Prize for the development of phase contrast microscopy. In 1967, Erwin Müller improved his field-ion microscope by adding a time-of-flight mass spectrometer to it, creating the first “atomic probe”. This device allows not only to identify a single atom, but also to determine the mass and charge multiplicity of the ion.

In 1981, Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer from Germany created a scanning (scanning) tunneling microscope; five years later, Binnig and his colleagues invented the scanning atomic force microscope. Unlike the previous development, AFM allows you to explore both conductive and non-conductive surfaces and actually manipulate atoms. In the same year, Binnig and Rohrer received the Nobel Prize for STM.

In 1988, three scientists from the UK equipped Muller's "atomic probe" with a position-sensitive detector, which made it possible to determine the position of atoms in three dimensions.

In 1988 Japanese engineer Kingo Itaya invented the electrochemical scanning tunneling microscope, and three years later the Kelvin probe force microscope, a non-contact version of the atomic force microscope, was proposed.

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AT modern world The microscope is considered an indispensable optical device. Without it, it is difficult to imagine such areas human activity like biology, medicine, chemistry, space research, genetic engineering.

Microscopes are used to study a wide variety of objects and allow the smallest details consider structures that are invisible to the naked eye. To whom does humanity owe the appearance of this useful device? Who invented the microscope and when?

When did the first microscope appear?

The history of the device is rooted in ancient times. The ability of curved surfaces to reflect and refract sunlight was noticed as early as the 3rd century BC by the explorer Euclid. In his works, the scientist found an explanation for the visual magnification of objects, but then his discovery did not find practical application.

The most early information about microscopes goes back to XVIII century. In 1590, the Dutch craftsman Zachary Jansen placed two lenses from glasses in one tube and was able to see objects magnified from 5 to 10 times.



Later famous explorer Galileo Galilei invented the spyglass and drew attention to interesting feature: if it is greatly pushed apart, then small objects can be significantly enlarged.

Who built the first model of an optical device?

A real scientific and technological breakthrough in the development of the microscope occurred in the 17th century. In 1619, the Dutch inventor Cornelius Drebbel invented a microscope with convex lenses, and at the end of the century, another Dutchman, Christian Huygens, presented his model, in which eyepieces could be adjusted.

A more advanced device was invented by the inventor Anthony Van Leeuwenhoek, who created a device with one large lens. Over the next century and a half, this product gave highest quality images, which is why Leeuwenhoek is often called the inventor of the microscope.

Who invented the first compound microscope?

There is an opinion that the optical device was not invented by Leeuwenhoek, but by Robert Hooke, who in 1661 improved Huygens' model by adding an additional lens to it. The resulting type of device became one of the most popular in the scientific community and was widely used until the middle of the 18th century.



In the future, many inventors put their hand in the development of the microscope. In 1863, Henry Sorby came up with a polarization device that made it possible to study, and in the 1870s, Ernst Abbe developed the theory of microscopes and discovered the dimensionless quantity "Abbe number", which contributed to the manufacture of more advanced optical equipment.

Who is the inventor of the electron microscope?

In 1931, scientist Robert Rudenberg patented a new device that could magnify objects using electron beams. The device was called an electron microscope and has found wide application in many sciences due to its high resolution, thousands of times greater than conventional optics.

A year later, Ernst Ruska created a prototype of a modern electronic device, for which he was awarded Nobel Prize. Already in the late 1930s, his invention began to be widely used in scientific research. At the same time, Siemens began to produce electron microscopes intended for commercial use.

Who is the author of the nanoscope?

The most innovative variety optical microscope today is a nanoscope developed in 2006 by a group of scientists led by the German inventor Stefan Hell.



The new device allows not only to overcome the barrier of the Abbe number, but also provides an opportunity to observe objects with dimensions of 10 nanometers or less. In addition, the device provides high-quality three-dimensional images of objects, which was previously inaccessible to conventional microscopes.