Microscopy and Photomicrography

During the workshop on microscopy and photomicrography, given to us by Dr. Ross, we

were able to learn about several techniques that are implemented in different areas of

biological research (i.e. microbiology, cell biology, botany, etc.). We learned that there are two

types of microscopes used for microscopy: (1) the electron microscope (2) and the light

microscope. The difference being that one-the light microscope-uses visible light in order to

detect small objects, and the other-electron microscope-uses an electron beam, that has no

wavelength, to illuminate the specimen. With light microscopy there are a few techniques that

can be applied in order to improve the visible quality of the specimen such as: the

microtechnique, whole mount, cross sections, bright field, dark field, and phase contrast. In

order to practice these techniques we were assigned different specimens to observe. I was

assigned the aphid, which is a small parasite like insect that leeches off of plant nutrients. To

observe the aphid I used the dissecting microscope at a 5.6x10 magnification.