No, Galileo did not invent the microscope. He was one of the first Italians who worked with microscopes and created his own compound microscopes in the early 1600s. But the compound light microscope was invented in the Netherlands sometime around 1590 and patented in 1608. Nevertheless, Galileo was an early microscope developer and user, and …
A compound microscope is the most common microscope you can get and the type you’ll typically see in a lab or hobbyist’s study. These microscopes tend to have total magnification between 40x – 2000x to allow you to see specimens like bacteria and cells. This list of the parts of the microscope can help you …
Parts of a Compound Microscope (And their Functions) Read More »
It’s a common misconception that van Leeuwenhoek invented the microscope, but microscopes were around for about 40 years before van Leeuwenhoek was born. Nonetheless, we still consider van Leeuwenhoek to be the father of microbiology and even the father of microscopy because of the remarkable developments he made in microscopy. Born in 1634, van Leeuwenhoek …
Anton van Leeuwenhoek: Father of Microbiology and Microscopy Read More »
Microscopes gradually evolved from eyeglasses and optical lenses that have been in use since about the 13th Century. But the modern light microscope was born somewhere in the late 16th and early 17th Century. In this post, I’ll outline the evolution of the microscope from the rudimentary lenses of the 1590s through to the sophisticated …
History and Timeline of Microscopy (1590 to Today) Read More »
There is debate over who invented the microscope. But we know that the first compound microscope was developed in a town called Middelburg in about 1590. The confusion comes from the fact there are two competing claims to the invention of the first microscope. These claims come from two neighboring spectacle makers who were both …
