Question: Why do you enjoy using microscopes? Is it because of a past experience?

Sue Carney answered on 11 Jun 2011:

I suppose it is because of a past experience, yes. At university, when I was doing the microbiology part of my degree course, we looked at lots of different bacteria down the microscope. They are very small indeed. Much smaller than the sperm cells I’ve put a picture of on my profile page. Even at higher magnifications using a light microscope, most bacteria look like little dots or dashes, but I can remember being fascinated to see them in real life for the first time, rather than just in a picture. I also saw images made by an electron microscope, and in these you can see much more detail on the outer surface of bacteria. (You could google ‘bacteria SEM images’ to see what I mean.)
I also like the fact that the controls on the light microscope that I usually use (and on most microscopes generally) are very sensitive. Only a very small adjustment to the focus knob makes a huge difference to what you can see. That means it takes a little bit of practice to use the microscope well.
The best thing about it is that you just don’t know what you’re going to find on the slide until you use the microscope. Without the microscope your slide is just a piece of glass with a very uninteresting spot on it!