A microscope (from the Greek: μικρός, mikrós, small and σκοπεῖν, skopeîn, to look or see ) is an instrument used to see objects too small for the naked eye. The science of investigating small objects using such an instrument is called microscopy. Microscopic means invisible to the eye unless aided by a microscope.
There are many types of microscopes, the most common and first to be invented is the optical microscope which uses light to image the sample. Other major types of microscopes are the electron microscope (both the transmission electron microscope and the scanning electron microscope) and the various types of scanning probe microscope.
The first microscope to be developed was the optical microscope, although the original inventor is not easy to identify. An early microscope was made in 1590 in Middelburg, Netherlands.[1] Two eyeglass makers are variously given credit: Hans Lippershey (who developed an early telescope) and Hans Janssen. Giovanni Faber coined the name microscope for Galileo Galilei's compound microscope in 1625 [2] (Galileo had called it the occhiolino or little eye ).
It was not until the 1660s and 1670s that the microscope was used extensively for research in Italy, Holland and England. Marcelo Malpighi in Italy began the analysis of biological structures beginning with the lungs. Robert Hooke's Micrographia had a huge impact, largely because of its impressive illustrations. The greatest contribution came from Antoni van Leeuwenhoek who discovered red blood cells and spermatozoa and helped popularise microscopy as a technique. On 9 October 1676, Leeuwenhoek reported the discovery of micro-organisms.[3]
