Microscopy

What is the formula for Magnification?

Magnification = Image size \ Real size

What is a light microscope?

A light microscope uses light and lenses to form an image and magnify it.

What is an electron microscope?

An electron microscope uses electrons to form an image. They have higher magnification and higher resolution than light microscopes

What does a light microscope let us see?

They let us see individual cells and large sub-cellular structures like nuclei.

What do electron microscopes let us see?

They let us see small things in more detail like the internal structure of mitochondria and chloroplasts. They also let us see tinier things like ribosomes and plasmids.

What is 1µm in millimeters?

0.001mm

How do you prepare a slide to view onion cells?

1- Add a drop of water to the middle of a clean slide

2- Cut up an onion and separate it out into layers. Use tweezers to peel off some epidermal tissue from the bottom of one of the layers.

3- Using the tweezers, place the epidermal tissue onto the water on the slide.

4- Add a drop of iodine solution as it is a stain. Stains are used to highlight objects in a cell by adding colour.

5- Place of cover slip on top and try not to get any air bubbles under there as they’ll obstruct the view of the specimen.