Answer to Question #249524 in Biology for Niki

Question

Compare and contrast the structure and function of various types of microscopes

Answer 1

There are three basic types of microscopes: optical, charged particle (electron and ion), and scanning probe. Optical microscopes are the ones most familiar to everyone from the high school science lab or the doctor's office. They use visible light and transparent lenses to see objects as small as about one micrometer (one millionth of a meter), such as a red blood cell (7 μm) or a human hair (100 μm).

Electron and ion microscopes use a beam of charged particles instead of light, and use electromagnetic or electrostatic lenses to focus the particles. They can see features as small as one-tenth of a nanometer (one ten billionth of a meter), including individual atoms.

Scanning probe microscopes allow researchers to image, characterize and even manipulate material structures at exceedingly small scales including features of atomic proportions. Scanning probe microscopes use no lenses, but rather a very sharp probe(a very small, very sharp needle) that interacts with the sample surface. It maps various forces and interactions that occur between the probe and the sample to create an image. These instruments also are capable of the resolution required to create atomic scale images (ten billionth of a meter). A modern light microscope, by comparison, has a magnification of about 1000x and enables the eye to resolve objects separated by 200 nm.