Anton Von Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723) was the Inventor of Microscope.Microscopes are the most indispensable instrument in a biology laboratory. They help to increase the resolving power of human which fails to recognize objects lying closer between 0.01 to 0.25mm.
Some common types of microscopes are
-Light Microscope: These Microscopes use light rays to illuminate objects. Dissection& compound Microscope are part of this category.
A) Dissecting Microscope: It is used for dissection, especially during taxonomic studies, Embryo separation.
B) Compound Microscope: It is one of the most commonly used a most suitable microscope in the Botany Laboratory. It is also known as monocular-nonobjective Microscope.
–Binocular Microscope: It possesses two eyepieces for viewing a subject to be studied at a high degree of magnification.
-Phase- Contrast Microscope: It is used to study the behavior of living cells, observe the nuclear & Cytoplasmic changes taking place during mitosis& the effect of different Chemicals inside the living cells.
-Electron Microscope: It was developed in 1932 by Knoll& Ruska in Germany.
A) TEM (Transmission Electron Microscope): IT is used to observe fine structure of cells-Ultra thin sections of the object are prepared& they are stained with heavy metal to make certain part dense, inserted in the vacuum chamber of the microscope.
B) SEM (Scanning Electron Microscope) : It is used to study the surfaces of the cell& Organism. In this microscope the image is formed by the electron reflected back from the object. The Image formed by this microscope has a three dimensional appearance.