The Microscope
By Carter Moore

Introduction:

The microscope was developed in the late 16th century in England. The microscope was most likely discovered by inverting a telescope. One of the first microscopes was six feet tall and only had one lens at the end. Even though in the today’s world this sounds rather elementary, in its time it was a huge advancement in the field of science.
History:

In about 1597 two Dutch eyeglass makers, Zaccharias Janssen and his son Hans were experimenting with lenses in a tube. They observed that nearby objects viewed through two lenses lined up were magnified. Their device was the first compound microscope. However, their lenses were too big and the magnification power was only about 10X. Galileo also designed a compound microscope, but it was only useful for reflected light. Robert Hooke built the first useable British compound microscope in about 1655. The single lens microscopes made by Antoni van Leeuwenhoek were much better than the early compound microscopes.

Biography:

Antoni van Leeuwenhoek was a Dutch microscope maker that had little to no formal scientific education. Although he didn’t have a formal scientific education he confirmed and further developed the discovery by Marcello Malpighi regarding the pulmonary capillaries, demonstrating how the red corpuscles circulated through the capillaries of a rabbit's ear and the web of a frog's foot. In 1676, he observed and described for the first time what he called animalcules known today as protozoa and bacteria in pond water, rainwater, in human saliva. In 1677, he described the spermatozoa of both insects and humans. Leeuwenhoek also made a lens that could magnify an object by 270 times which far exceeded the magnification power of the microscopes which preceded it which that could only magnify an object by about 20 times. This allowed Leeuwenhoek and his predecessors the privilege of launching the human race into the marvels of today’s modern medical capabilities.
Journal article:

http://pubs.rsc.org/en/Content/ArticleLanding/1995/FT/ft9959100719

This article show that Copper hydride decomposes to metallic copper and hydrogen gas when exposed to the electron beam within a transmission electron microscope. This article also shows that exposure to ammonia vapor causes fragmentation and reconstruction of the particles.

Impact on the world:

Prior to the invention of the microscope, people did not realize there were living things too small to see with the naked eye like bacteria and protozoa. The discovery of microorganisms revolutionized the world of biology and medicine.
Bibliography:

Antony van Leeuwenhoek. (n.d.). UCMP - University of California Museum of Paleontology. Retrieved April 27, 2011, from

The Microscope. (n.d.). Microscope. Retrieved April 25, 2011, from campus.udayton.edu/~hume/Microscope/microscope.html