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Boerhaave Museum Top Collection: all rooms | |
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zaal 24: Microscopie: nieuwe wegen | |
| Click to view the first showcase |
The development of the microscope with ‘ordinary’lenses reached its peak at the end of the 19th century. Since the maximum magnification is determined by the wavelength of the light, it was impossible to increase the degree of magnification any further by improving the optics of the microscope. All kinds of optical tricks were devised by which images of the structures in preparations were vreated in entirely new ways.
A totally different way openend up with the discovery that electron beams can also be used to form images of objects through which they pass. Since the wavelenght of electron beams id much shorter than that of ordinary light, far greater magnifications can be achieved with the electron microscope.