Optical Microscope

The lens system that revealed a hidden world/Inventions & Discoveries

The compound optical microscope was developed in the late 16th century, with Antonie van Leeuwenhoek producing some of the finest early models in the 1670s. A typical modern optical microscope stands about 40 cm tall, weighs around 5 kg, and can magnify objects up to 2,000 times their actual size. The theoretical resolution limit is about 200 nanometers, constrained by the wavelength of visible light.