Contents
About the Authors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Special Thanks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
About This Book. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Conventions Used in This Book. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Foolish Assumptions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
How This Book Is Organized . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Part I: Basics of Microscopy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Part II: A Deeper Look into a Light Microscope. . . . . . . . . 12
Part III: Sample Preparation in Light Microscopy . . . . . . . 13
Part IV: Digital Documentation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Part V: The Part of Tens. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Icons Used in This Book. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Where to Go from Here . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
PART I
BASICS OF MICROSCOPY. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Chapter 1
The Microscope and How It Works. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
How the Eye Creates an Image. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Life Is Full of Colors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Seeing a Human Hair With a Human Eye. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Let’s Have a Look Through a Magnifying Glass. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Chapter 2
What Microscopes Do – Physically. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
The Microscopic Magnification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
The Useful Magnification. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Resolution in Terms of a Microscope. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
About Stick Insects and Contrast. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Chapter 3
Different Types of Microscopes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Compound Microscopes – Clever Combination of Lenses
and Light. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
The Location of the Sample Defines the Microscope Type. . . . 28