Discover what a MICROSCOPE is for and all the USES it is given

Today, the microscope is such a basic tool in most laboratories such as the refrigerator at home. We are so used to its use in the scientific field that sometimes it is easy to lose sight of everything that this tool has allowed us to observe. What is the microscope for? It may seem like an obvious answer question: to see things bigger. And yet we are not always aware of all the possibilities that this implies. If you want to learn more about the different uses of the microscope, join us in this lesson from a TEACHER.

The human being has already more than 4000 years using image magnification techniques. The ancient Greeks, Romans, Chinese and Arabs used glass or bottled water to enlarge the image in certain tasks, and between the years 1000 and 1300 AD. C. the first glasses and monocles have already appeared.

However, it was in the 16th and 17th centuries, with the great deepening of Europe in terms of optics, when the first microscopes along with spyglasses and telescopes. All of them used the superposition of lenses to be able to enlarge the image to the human eye without losing clarity or sharpness.

The first microscope was invented in the 1590 by Zacharias Janssen, although it was surpassed in 1607 by Anton van Leeuwenhoek, of higher image quality. It was Anton himself who, a few years later, in the middle of the century, was able to describe for the first time bacteria, sperm, protozoa, and red blood cells. It was the discovery of microscopic world, how much it would allow us to discover and that, over the years and on an even smaller scale, brings us closer to the future of current physics: the quantum world.

The use of a microscope It is always the same: bringing to our eyes what cannot be seen naturally. However, not all disciplines or sciences make equal use of a tool as useful as this: these are some of the areas in which the microscope is most essential.

Forensic Science

When it comes to analyze evidence and possible evidenceRelying on the acuity of the naked eye is not an option. From the analysis of tissues and organic fluids to the different small fibers that are invisible to the eye, passing through the bullet marks and grooves, which are your identity card: they are vital information that we could not access without the use of the microscope.

Also in the forensic area, tasks such as the determination of the cause of death, or the study of the spread of diseases and epidemics, being in both cases this vital tool for an observation adequate.

Medicine

As soon as the microscope was invented, medical professionals and scholars welcomed it with open arms. Thanks to him they can analyze bacteria, viruses and other microorganisms in a way that was unthinkable before, observing their behavior and greatly accelerating progress in the field.

It is possible to analyze cells to distinguish healthy from cancer, see a parasite attacking red blood cells in the blood, and what microbes are found in a stool sample.

In addition, the most modern and advanced microscopes have also made it possible to develop new chemicals, bases of medicines and drugs of great impact.

Engineering and electronics

The information age and all its advances in computing and electronics they would be totally unfeasible even without microscopes. Microchips, processors, and basically all of today's electronics are built on elements so small that they could never have been developed without those kinds of augmentations.

It is also necessary in the mechanical Engineering of very small parts, as well as in the materials engineering, in which innovative materials with exceptional properties are developed every year, specialized for all kinds of advanced uses. Without the microscope, creating and studying the structures that make up these new materials would not have been feasible either.

Physical

The most advanced microscopes have allowed particle physics to be much more than a bunch of calculations and theories. Current technology treasures such as LHC use the more advanced microscopes to be able to observe the results of their experiments and gather the invaluable information that will allow us to advance towards a new model of physics: without an eye that allows to observe, it is not possible to go to the experimental field, and without this, the errors in the theory often cannot be discovered or be contrasted.

Others

The ophthalmology, responsible for the study of the human eye, would not be so developed without the advance that optical microscopes allowed. In addition, there are fields of botany such as palynology, in charge of studying spores and pollen, which consist of observing bodies of microscopic size. Logically, without a matching magnification tool, the existence of this branch of botany would be entirely impossible, or at least practically unfeasible.