From telescopes to digital imagery: a brief history of the microscope.

Who was the original creator of the first microscope?

Historians suggest that the first microscope was designed in 1590, however this has been long debated within the science-community. Attribution has been given to two people Hans Lippershey and Zacharais Janseen.

Hans Lippershey (1570 – 1619) was a German-Dutch spectacle maker and commonly associated with the invention of the telescope. Lippershey held the first patent for the telescope and laid claim to a device that could magnify objects three times.

Zacharias Janseen (1585-1632) was a Dutch-spectacle maker with his Father, Hans Janseen and associated with the invention of the optical telescope. If historians are correct in their suspicions that the first microscope was designed in 1590, it would have made Zacharias five-years old at the time. So, historians suggest that perhaps the design was originally done by his Father and Grandfather, Hans Martens.

 

It wasn’t until 1665 where artist and researcher, Robert Hooke (1635 – 1703) published ‘Micrographia’, a book that contained hand illustrated images he drew while observing under the microscope. It was Hooke that first discovered what we now know as ‘cells’. Today, many researchers continue to draw hand illustrated images.

 

The ‘Father of Microbiology’ is considered to be Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (1632 – 1723) who would grind his own lenses increasing the magnification of a lens up to 200-times which allowed him to discover blood cells. He was also the first to see the living sperm cells of animals.

 

Over time many scientists and researchers have contributed to a history of work and with the invention of photography in 1822 by Frenchman,  Nicéphore Niépce we have continued to build open technology and found new ways to see ‘Unseen Worlds’ under the microscope. It is believed that the first digital microscope was manufactured in Japan in 1986 and was considered a groundbreaking instrument as it was built from a control box and lens connected to a camera which opened a new realm of possibilities.

 

Today, images like those exhibited in the Unseen Worlds projection are possible because of the research and discovery of scientists throughout history.

Digital photography and science illustrations: do we need both?

In an age of digital technology, is there a need for scientific illustrations? In short – yes, there will always be a need.

Before digital photography existed, scientific illustrations were crucial to recording and communicating science and findings. Robert Hooke was the first known scientist to begin illustrating images he was seeing under the microscope. These intricate illustrations were able to convey technical details about research that other tools (like the microscope – at the time) were unable to. Scientific sketches are also capable of illustrating a hypothesis of research or theories generated from microscopic evidence. For example, in more recent studies scientists suggest that dinosaur fossils have feathers and therefore had to illustrate an image of what they could have looked like, which current technology did not allow to happen without having scientific sketches.

Even today when there are tools and technology i.e. 3D rendering we still require the outcomes from the intersection of art and science and these hand-drawn illustrations.

 

  1. Featuring photography by QBiotics Group; donna davis, Artist-in-residence, Queensland Herbarium and Biodiversity Science Unit; Geoff Thompson, Queensland Museum; The University of Queensland’s research centres, IMB and QUBIC; with soundscape design by Luke Lickfold.
    Unseen Worlds     is proudly presented by QBiotics Group.

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UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND – IMB & QUBICS