Specimens can vary from bacterial to cells and other microbial particles.įigure: Diagram of Light Microscopes, created with Ī medium with a lower refractive index such as glass to air normally speeds up the light penetration and makes light bend away from the normal and when light is passed through a medium with a greater refractive index such as air to glass, it normally slows down and bends towards the normal, perpendicularly to the surface. The transparency of the specimen allows easy and quick penetration of light.

The image is then passed through one or two lenses for magnification for viewing.

The functioning of the light microscope is based on its ability to focus a beam of light through a specimen, which is very small and transparent, to produce an image.

The lenses are aligned in that, they can be able to bend light for efficient magnification of the image. e Simple light microscope (it has low magnification because it uses a single lens) and the Compound light microscope (it has a higher magnification compared to the simple microscope because it uses at least two sets of lenses, an objective lens, and an eyepiece).

Depending on the number of lenses, there are two types of microscopes i.

Microscopic magnification varies greatly depending on the types and number of lenses that make up the microscope.

The specimen is normally placed close to the microscopic lens.

They use lenses to focus light on the specimen, magnifying it thus producing an image.

A light microscope is a biology laboratory instrument or tool, that uses visible light to detect and magnify very small objects and enlarge them.

The light microscope is also known as an optical microscope.

The application of microscopy in Microbiology enhanced the visualization of cells and microorganisms by magnifying their images to make them larger.

His simple microscope was made up of a double convex glass lens that was held between two silver plates.

From the History of Microbiology, Antony Van Lewnehoueek an amateur Microbiologist made the first simple microscope, that enabled him to observe the presence of tiny living organisms in pond water that appeared like dots.

Despite not being included as a scientific discovery, this act paved the way for scientific evolution.

Although scientifically, the first simple microscope was discovered by two Dutch scientists, Zaccharias Janssen and his father, Hans who made spectacles, were the first to experiment with their lenses by combining lenses in a tube and observed that the objects that were nearby, appeared closer and larger.

Microbiology’s scope is to study organisms and minute agents that can only be examined and observed with a microscope.

The evolution of the Microbiology field put to perspective the need to identify, view, observe and understand microorganisms, including their structural morphologies and mechanisms.

Introduction to light microscopy