Question: How many different types of microscopes are there?

Rachael Ward answered on 14 Jun 2011:

Hi – Good Q!
The easy answer is LOADS!

You can kind of split them up by what they use to interact with the sample you’re looking at. Then I think there are 3 types

1) Light microscopes
I use these a lot and they’re great as theyre cheap(ish) and easy to use but you cant magnify things as much as you can using other microscopes.
Fluorescent microscopes also come under this catagory. They use fluorescent light to highlight fluorescent proteins that have been attached to certain bits of the sample you are interested in. I use these a lot too to look specifically at the neurons in my worms.

2) Electron microscopes
These use electrons instead of light to generate the image. As electrons are really small, you can see more details of the sample and use greater magnifications than with light microscopes. I use these a lot and there are now many different types of them which you use for different things. Transmission electron microscopes and scanning electron microscopes are the main 2. You can read more here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electron_microscope

3) Scanning probe microscopes
These use a probe, made of different types of metal depending on microscope. I’m afraid I cant tell you much more about these as I’ve never used one or even seen one!

Now though, people are combining lots of different technologies so we are getting light and fluorescent microscopes that can magnify to a much higher degree, similar to electron microscopes. Its developing and getting better all the time and is a very exciting area to be in.
You can see some pictures I’ve taken on light and electron microscopes on my profile page if youre interested.

I hope this answers your question!