How New Science is Transforming the Optical Microscope
- Synopsis
- Video recording of the 2012 Leeuwenhoek Lecture given at the Royal Society on 13 February 2012 by Dr Brad Amos. There are two rules for making an optical microscope: the lenses must be small, since defects of colour and focus increase with lens size, and the lenses must capture light from the object over as wide an angle as possible to record fine detail. This was understood a century ago, however, lasers, computers and chemically-specific labels have produced an explosion of development recently. To see molecular detail, a hundredfold improvement in resolution is needed, but has not yet been obtained. A new method is described, which can show anatomy at the scale of micrometres and subcellular detail in the same image of a specimen such as a mouse embryo. This is the first microscope system to disobey the ‘small lens’ rule. (65 minutes)
- Language
- English
- Country
- Great Britain
- Year of release
- 2012
- Year of production
- 2012
- Subjects
- Biology; Physics; Technology
- Keywords
- lenses; optical microscopy; technological innovation
Online availability
- URI
- http://royalsociety.org/events/2012/optical-microscope/
- Price
- free
- Delivery
- Streamed
Credits
- Contributor
- Brad Amos
Distributor
- Name
Royal Society: Royalsociety.tv
- http://royalsociety.org/contact-us/?from=header
- Web
- http://royalsociety.org/ External site opens in new window
- Phone
- 020 7451 2500
- Address
- 6-9 Carlton House Terrace
London
SW1Y 5AG - Notes
- Royalsociety.tv offers live webcasts as well as podcasts and free, on-demand streaming of video and audio recordings of events held at the Royal Society. Lectures and discussions feature leading scientists and cover history of science as well as exploring cutting-edge science and culture.
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