Question:

When was the light microscope invented?

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And by who? And the stereo microscope?

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  1. It is difficult to say who invented the compound microscope. Dutch spectacle-makers Hans Janssen and his son Zacharias Janssen are often said to have invented the first compound microscope in 1590, but this was a declaration made by Zacharias Janssen himself during the mid 1600s. The date is unlikely, as it has been shown that Zacharias Janssen actually was born around 1590. Another favourite for the title of 'inventor of the microscope' was Galileo Galilei. He developed an occhiolino or compound microscope with a convex and a concave lens in 1609. Galileo's microscope was celebrated in the Accademia dei Lincei in 1624 and was the first such device to be given the name "microscope" a year latter by fellow Lincean Giovanni Faber. Faber coined the name from the Greek words μικρόν (micron) meaning "small", and σκοπεῖν (skopein) meaning "to look at", a name meant to be analogus with "telescope", another word coined by the Linceans.

    Christiaan Huygens, another Dutchman, developed a simple 2-lens ocular system in the late 1600s that was achromatically corrected, and therefore a huge step forward in microscope development. The Huygens ocular is still being produced to this day, but suffers from a small field size, and other minor problems.

    Anton van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723) is credited with bringing the microscope to the attention of biologists, even though simple magnifying lenses were already being produced in the 1500s. Van Leeuwenhoek's home-made microscopes were very small simple instruments, with a single, yet strong lens. They were awkward in use, but enabled van Leeuwenhoek to see detailed images. It took about 150 years of optical development before the compound microscope was able to provide the same quality image as van Leeuwenhoek's simple microscopes, due to timely difficulties of configuring multiple lenses. Still, despite widespread claims, van Leeuwenhoek is the inventor of the microscope.


  2. you can search it to google or yahoo y'know...

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