It is said that the world's first microscope was invented by a father-and-son team of Dutch glass workers,
Hans and Zacharias Jansen, in 1590. Later, in the latter half of the 17th century, the British scientist Robert
Hooke (1635-1703) developed the forerunner of the modern optical microscope and discovered that living organisms
are made of cells.
Due to the fact that optical microscopes incorporate lenses, there are limits that cannot be avoided: The properties
of light waves (limits of resolution) render any objects approaching the size of the wavelengths of light (360-830
nm) invisible.
There are now optical microscopes that use ultraviolet light
sources with wavelengths shorter than visible light waves. Nonetheless, their powers of magnification go no higher
than x4000, making them ineffective for the observation of, for example, the detailed structure of viruses; making
out atoms and molecules is, of course, totally out of the question. In short, optical microscopes are no help
at all in observing the nano world.
