Wednesday, October 16, 2024

Light & Electron Microscopes

 There is a difference between Light and Electron microscopes, most microscopes we use are light microscopes which are lighter in weight cheaper to purchase and easier to use than electronic ones. But that comes with some drawbacks, as we can only see stuff that is 0.2 micrometres so our resolution can only go to 0.2 micrometres because light has a wavelength of 0.2 micrometres and we use the light to focus on the subject, 
and if we try to zoom in further than 0.2 micrometres it will be unfocused and blurry.

While electron microscopes are heavy, expensive and hard to use, and only really used by scientists, election microscopes use electrons instead of light which enables you to zoom in until 0.1 nanometers, electron microscopes have a nearly 2000x zoom compared to light microscopes.
They are normally used to look at sub-cellular structures, so you can look at the nucleus of cells along with the mitochondria, but they also have no colour and thus are black and white since that there is no light going into the subject. 





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