Specimens must be viewed in several different ways to ensure a sufficient amount of detail can be seen and recorded about the specimen.
Specimens can be viewed by the naked eye, but most are viewed under microscopes as they are much too small. There are several types of microscopes, these are:
• Optical microscope (this uses light to create an image of the specimen)
• Electron microscope (this uses electrons to create a better view of the specimen)
• Scanning probe (uses a physical probe to scan the specimen)
• Scanning acoustic microscopes (used to observe sound waves)
The microscope if used to see things that may be invisible to the naked eye or impossible to be viewed in detail without a microscope.
The optical microscope can magnify images from small samples, and either has one lens (a single lens microscope) or several lenses (a compound microscope). Multiple lens microscopes are much more reliable at creating enhanced images of the specimens being observed. They have been around for over 400 years, and have become much more advances and specialized over the years, creating superior images to what they would have originally been, making the findings more reliable.
The electron microscope has a much greater resolving power than the optical microscope as electrons have a much shorter wavelength than light. It was invented in 1931, so is quite a new development and is constantly being improved and updated. As the specimens have to be cut it to very small segments, this means that live specimens cannot be viewed under this type of microscopes, when this factor may be vital in research. Another disadvantage is that they are hard to build and much more expensive than the optical microscope, they aren't as easily available as the optical microscope so isn't often used.
Specimens can be viewed by the naked eye, but most are viewed under microscopes as they are much too small. There are several types of microscopes, these are:
• Optical microscope (this uses light to create an image of the specimen)
• Electron microscope (this uses electrons to create a better view of the specimen)
• Scanning probe (uses a physical probe to scan the specimen)
• Scanning acoustic microscopes (used to observe sound waves)
The microscope if used to see things that may be invisible to the naked eye or impossible to be viewed in detail without a microscope.
The optical microscope can magnify images from small samples, and either has one lens (a single lens microscope) or several lenses (a compound microscope). Multiple lens microscopes are much more reliable at creating enhanced images of the specimens being observed. They have been around for over 400 years, and have become much more advances and specialized over the years, creating superior images to what they would have originally been, making the findings more reliable.
The electron microscope has a much greater resolving power than the optical microscope as electrons have a much shorter wavelength than light. It was invented in 1931, so is quite a new development and is constantly being improved and updated. As the specimens have to be cut it to very small segments, this means that live specimens cannot be viewed under this type of microscopes, when this factor may be vital in research. Another disadvantage is that they are hard to build and much more expensive than the optical microscope, they aren't as easily available as the optical microscope so isn't often used.