1. 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.