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first Compound Microscope
With the help of his father, Hans Jansen(unknown), Zacharias Jansen(1580--638) discovered what we believe to be the first microscope in AD 1595 when experimenting with lenses. Zacharias and his father were Dutch eyeglass crafters. -
Hooke's Compound Microscope
A further improvement on the microscope by Robert Hooke(July 18, 1635--March 3, 1703) was to light the specimen with an exterior source. His microscope included an oil lamp. -
Leeuwenhoek's Simple Microscope
Anton van Leeuwenhoek(October 24, 1632--August 26, 1723 ) created a simple microscope consisting of one, tiny lens. Surprisingly, that lens could produce up to 266 times magnification. Leeuwenhoek kept his work secretive because he believed that he would be discredited of his work in microbiology. -
Modern Compound Light Microscope
German scientists Ernst Abbe(January 23, 1840--January 14, 1905) and Carl Zeiss(11 September 1816--3 December 1888) developed a compound light microscope that employed an array of complex lenses to greatly improve the image in AD 1886. A mirror reflects light upwards onto the specimen to create the clearest image. -
Transmission Electron Microscope
In 1933, German physicist Ernst Ruska(25 December 1906--27 May 1988) constructed the first electron microscope. The microscope works by projecting electrons through a thinnly sliced specimen to obtain an image up to 500,000 times the orginal size. -
Scanning Electron Microscope
The SEM was further developed by Charles Oatley(14 February 1904--11 March 1996) in 1965. The original idea came from Max Knoll who had previously obtained a SEM image of sillicon steel in 1935. -
test tube baby
Louise Joy Brown, the world's first successful "test-tube" baby was born in Great Britain. -
Scanning Tunneling Microscope
Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer are credited to the invention of the STM in 1986. The creation of the STM earned them the Nobel Prize in Physics.
