Microscopes

It’s been said that “we live in the middle of infinity.” The endless boundaries of the universe are apparent to us when we hear astronomers speak about various stars and other celestial objects being “light years” away from us. However, if we look into the smaller worlds that make up the tiny things that can be held in our hand, we can soon find out that changes in order of magnitude in the “tiny things” can be just as dramatic as they are in our understanding of the universe. For example, if we compare a 3 foot by 3 foot patch of grass to the width of the entire earth, we are dealing with an “order of magnitude” of approximately 12.6 X 106 or, 12,600,000. The earth is about 12 million times the size of a patch of grass upon which we could have a picnic. That is quite a large difference in size, but if we look deep into that patch of grass, deep enough to see a single plant cell, we are looking at something that is smaller than our patch of grass by the same order of magnitude as our patch of grass is to the entire earth, or, about 12 million times smaller than our patch of grass. With advanced microscopes, and through the study of atomic particles we have learned that smaller, and smaller particles make up the familiar objects we live with from day to day. As we look deeper into that single plant cell, we find structures inside the cell that help it live, and within those structures we find large protein molecules, and within those protein molecules we find individual atoms, and within the atoms we find the basic atomic particles, protons, electrons, and neutrons. Atomic physicists have also discovered tinier, sub-atomic particles like quarks, and mesons, and others. It seems that every time we develop a technology that allows us to see something on a smaller level, we discover that it’s made up of even smaller building blocks. It seems like we are “living in the middle of infinity”.

It’s only through the use of instruments like magnifying glasses, optical telescopes, radio telescopes, microscopes, electron microscopes and various other devices that we’ve come to understand our universe as well as we do now. Much of our understanding of the “smaller worlds” within our world has come from the use of the basic optical microscope, like the Blister Microscope. In fact, the same basic design is in use today in medical laboratories, research labs, industrial labs, and forensic science labs. It is a tool that has only had a few changes since the first design created by Van Lueenwenhook in the 1600’s and still has practical value for scientists and anyone who has a natural curiosity about our world.

Looking through the eyepiece of a microscope at the most common object can be an exploration as dramatic as walking on the moon. In many ways the tiny worlds revealed through the eye piece of a microscope is just as foreign and inaccessible to our every day lives as the surface of a distant object in space. So as you get ready to examine an object under your microscope, think of yourself as an explorer in space, even if it is a very tiny space. For the worlds revealed through the lens of you microscope are no less exotic, mysterious, and wondrous as the surface of the moon.