Define Microscopy in Biology?
Microscopy is the examination of those objects which cannot be seen by our naked eye. You watch them through an instrument called microscope which magnifies them and provides an enlarge image of the object. There are many times of microscopy apart from the usual one. They are:
~ Electron: This is where an electron beam takes the place of light to form one image.
~ Fluorescence: This is based on fluorescent materials when in visible light.
~ Immune electron: This is also done with biological specimens with a specific antibody.
~ Immunofluorescence: This is done using the antibodies which are with a fluorescent substance and a fluorescence microscopy to find the substance.
~ Nomarski: This is a whole other differential interference contrast microscopy
~ Time lapse: This is the kind of microscopy in which the same substance is photographed at regular intervals over time so as to understand a long process. For example, cell division.
Microscopy is from Greek where mikros means small and skpeo means to view.
One of the most common microscopes used in the research labs is the biological and the binocular microscope. This has the magnification has from 50X -1500X. This uses the samples which are fixed in slides for observation.