Assess The Impact Of Electron Microscope On Our Understanding Of The Cell
Asses the impact of the development of the electron microscope on our understanding of the cell and it’s role in cell theory.
Since the invention of the electron microscope in 1928 scientists have been able to study the ultrastructure of cells, that is, parts smaller than what can be seen with a light microscope, otherwise known as organelles and their functions.
Light microscopes had been developed to a point where the quality of the lenses was not limiting the detail in the image, the main limiting factor was the wavelength of light which limits the resolving power, the best light microscope could only magnify up to 200x, this meant that no new information about sub-cellular structure could come to light. In 1928 Ernst Ruska and his supervisor Max Kroll built the first electron microscope but it was not until 1933 that images could be magnified up to 1200x and during world war two Ruska achieved a magnification of one million times.
The electron microscope has the same basic principle as the light microscope except that the energy source transmitted through …show more content…
The word organelle literally means ‘little organs’ they are membrane bound structures. All organelles have special functions, the nucleus controls the cell by regulating gene expression. Nucleoli manufacture the subunits that combine to form ribosome which is the cells protein producing factory. The Golgi apparatus carry out the processing of proteins generated in the endoplasmic reticulum which functions as a packaging system and creates a ‘highway’ of membranes throughout a cell. The vacuole isolates substances that might be harmful to the cell and maintains and acidic internal pH. The mitochondria produces energy for various parts of the cell body. It also helps in building of certain parts of the blood and hormones. These are just some of the organelles that have major functions within a
Since the invention of the electron microscope in 1928 scientists have been able to study the ultrastructure of cells, that is, parts smaller than what can be seen with a light microscope, otherwise known as organelles and their functions.
Light microscopes had been developed to a point where the quality of the lenses was not limiting the detail in the image, the main limiting factor was the wavelength of light which limits the resolving power, the best light microscope could only magnify up to 200x, this meant that no new information about sub-cellular structure could come to light. In 1928 Ernst Ruska and his supervisor Max Kroll built the first electron microscope but it was not until 1933 that images could be magnified up to 1200x and during world war two Ruska achieved a magnification of one million times.
The electron microscope has the same basic principle as the light microscope except that the energy source transmitted through …show more content…
The word organelle literally means ‘little organs’ they are membrane bound structures. All organelles have special functions, the nucleus controls the cell by regulating gene expression. Nucleoli manufacture the subunits that combine to form ribosome which is the cells protein producing factory. The Golgi apparatus carry out the processing of proteins generated in the endoplasmic reticulum which functions as a packaging system and creates a ‘highway’ of membranes throughout a cell. The vacuole isolates substances that might be harmful to the cell and maintains and acidic internal pH. The mitochondria produces energy for various parts of the cell body. It also helps in building of certain parts of the blood and hormones. These are just some of the organelles that have major functions within a