Comparison Between Light and Electron Microscope

The introduction of the microscope as a tool for the biologist brought about a complete reappraisal of the micro- composition of biological tissues, organisms and cells. In the infancy of its application to organic materials, it was the implement of anatomists and histologists in particular, where previously unimagined structures in cells were revealed. More recent developments in biological specimen preparation have come from biochemists and physicists who have used the microscope to examine cells and tissue, utilizing a diverse range of techniques available. The fact that electron micrographs appear in most text books and research papers on cell structure and constituents, emphasize the importance of microscopy to the biologist faced with the enormous variety of experimental practices existing today for the analysis of cells. The microscope itself is a device used to produce a magnified image of an object or specimen. Ever since Anton Von Leeuwenhoek's (1632-1723) invention of a device powerful enough to explore the world of microbes, an explosion of interest has been enthused in the scientific possibilities of microscopes. The fascination of the microscopic world that opened up in biology inspired rapid progress both in microscope design and, equally more importantly, in preparing material for examination - both of which played a vital role in shaping the microscopes of today. There are two fundamentally different microscopes now in use today: the light microscope and the electron microscope- both of which utilize different forms of radiation in order to create an image of the specimen being examined. The light microscope, so called because it employs visible light to detect small objects, is probably the most well-known and most commonly used research tool in the laboratory. Here, Specimens are illuminated with light which then passes through two sets of lenses known as the objective lens and the ocular (or eyepiece) lens. The lenses