Microscopy

Microscopy is the science and practice of examining structures too small to resolve clearly with the unaided eye. It uses instruments and imaging methods to reveal their form, composition, or behavior.

Optical microscopy: Microscopy that uses visible or near-visible light and lenses to form images. It uses transmitted or reflected light to reveal specimens at scales beyond unaided vision.
Resolution (microscopy): The ability of a microscope to distinguish nearby features as separate. It determines which fine structures an image can actually distinguish.
Histology: The study of the microscopic structure of tissues. Thin tissue sections let microscopy connect cellular patterns with organ structure.
Macroscopy: The examination of objects and structures visible at ordinary human scale. It addresses features that do not require a microscope to resolve.
Compound microscope: A microscope that uses multiple lenses, commonly an objective and an eyepiece, to magnify an image. Its paired lenses established the instrument design behind much early microscopy.
Fluorescence microscopy: Microscopy that detects light emitted by fluorescent molecules after excitation. Fluorescent labels make selected structures stand out within complex specimens.
Numerical aperture: A dimensionless measure of a lens's ability to collect light or other radiation over an angular range. Higher numerical aperture generally permits finer resolution and brighter images.
Cell biology: The study of cells, including their structures, functions, and interactions. Microscopy makes cellular organization and changing processes directly observable.
Telescope: An instrument that collects radiation to observe distant objects, especially in astronomy. Telescopes resolve distant objects; microscopes resolve nearby objects too small to see clearly.
Antonie van Leeuwenhoek: A Dutch scientist who made powerful single-lens microscopes and reported observations of microorganisms in the seventeenth century. His observations expanded microscopy to bacteria, protozoa, and other minute life.

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