What Optical instrument do scientist use to study extremely small organisms?
Scientist use a special microscope called the “electron microscope.” To describe how powerful this microscope is, just read this. First, most students in ordinary biology classes use a “compound light microscope”. This is an microscope that you’ve probably used plenty of times before. A compound light microscope will allow you to see objects up to about 1000 times the original size. For many people, that is good enough. You can buy one of these for anywhere between $75 to about $500 dollars. However, if you are working with EXTREMELY tiny atoms and molecules. It is useful to use an electron microscope. INSTEAD OF 1000 times the original size, TRY 2 MILLION TIMES the original size. There is a lot of physics and math behind the electron microscope, but these scopes are huge and generally sit in one place. Quality electron microscopes are worth anywhere between $250,000 to ONE MILLION DOLLARS. Therefore, you will only find these at universities and science laboratories.
