Saturday 3 December 2011

Get Microscopes For Learning

By Deb Jones


My father and mother have been very supportive of whatever I want to become in life. Hence, when I was eight years of age, they persuaded me to become a scientist when I asked for a microscope. It was that Christmas that I received my first microscope. I could not take my hands off it nor my eyes for that matter as I was mesmerized of the invisible worlds that I now saw and with the dream of receiving a Nobel Peace Prize Award for a scientific discovery of new life forms, disease cures or anything that can benefit the human population.

My microscope became my eyes to another world, everything that I grabbed, I placed under its tiny scope. That winter was quite unusual. I was amazed and fell in love with the assortment and exquisiteness of the snowflakes.Exquisitely formed little works of art, each uniquely made and presented to us as a great gift of magnificent design.

It was the invention of glass lenses, or a combination of lenses with the use of a light microscope that enables to magnify these little worlds and make them visible to the human eye. There were early magnifiers, burning glasses and magnifying glasses as scribed by Seneca, Pliny the Elder, and Roman philosophers during the first century A.D.These pieces of magnifying glasses were called lenses because they were shaped like the seed of a lentil.

The original microscope was made up of a small pipe with a lens attached to an end and a plate on the other end. The lens amplifies ten times the size of the object that is placed on the plate. They used to call it flea glasses as well because of their curiosity on examining fleas and other insects with it.

In 1590, Zaccharias Janssen and his son Hans discovered that objects can seem bigger as a result of their testing on various lenses in a tube. In the years that succeeded, the device continues to upgrade as more scientists pitch in what they've learned and applied. Galileo's development on the theory on lenses in 1609 gave way to a device that allows you to focus on the object under examination. However, the scientist regarded as the founder of microscopy is Anton Van Leeuwenhoek of Holland. It started when he worked at a dry goods store as a trainee and a magnifying glass was what he used to tally the threads in the fabric. He was able to make lenses that curved up to 270 diameters of amplification after learning how to sharpen and refine them. He then built microscopes that sooner recognized him as the founder of microbiology. Microbiological discoveries such as bacteria, yeast plants, organisms in water and blood circulation in the capillaries is accredited to him.What a moment that must have been. It was not until the 19th century that a great enhancement to the magnifying device was made. It had the best lenses ever created with its magnification increased to 1250 diameters with natural light and 5000 diameters with blue light. This invention is credited to an American scientist and manufacturer by the name of Charles A. Spencer.

Microscopes come in different forms and dimensions, one that can spark off your kid's interest in other worlds, and others that are used for manufacturing, science and medicine. Without a doubt and despite the size, it will still be intriguing to look through the lens.




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