For millennia, the smallest thing humans could see was about as wide as a human hair. When the microscope was invented around 1590, suddenly we saw a new world of living things in our water, in our ...

Humans have always wanted to make small things bigger. To see that which is unseen with the naked eye. The inventor of the original microscope happened sometime in the 1600’s, though the inventor is ...

While the microscope as we know it today emerged in the 17th century, the concept of magnifying objects using lenses dates back to ancient times. The ancient Egyptians and Romans used simple lenses ...

The image shows a 6 mm long, 12.5 day old mouse embryo obtained with the Mesolens. The inset shows a blow-up of the eye region revealing the individual cell nuclei. It is possible to identify fine ...

This article was written by one of our Young Reporters, a scheme that gives 14 to 18-year-old school students a chance to write for a real newspaper. Find out more at the Young Reporter website.

The museum has a magnificent collection of microscopes including some fine examples of early compound microscopes such as this one made by John Marshall, one of the leading optical instrument makers ...