Microscopy

Antoni van Leeuwenhoek first observed microorganisms, which he called "animalicula", in the middle of the seventeenth century. He was a draper. Microscopy was his hobby. He made his observation with a single lens microscope and was able to observe many details of the cells he observed. He is justly known as the father of microbiology. Still today, microscopy is a cornerstone of microbiology. The presentation I loaded below focuses--OK I know it is a bad pun, I could not help it-- on the workhorse of the microbiology laboratory, the bright field microscope.

The presentation reviews routine staining procedures and the common shapes of bacterial cells. For detailed staining protocols, come back next week.

All my micrographs were taken at a 1,000x final magnification under oil immersion.