AEROMICROBIOLOGY (OR AIR MICROBIOLOGY): The study of airborne microorganisms. Biotechnology: related to recombinant DNA technology or genetic engineering.

MODULE 2 – EXAMINATION OF MICRO-ORGANISMS

MICROSCOPY

Microscopy is the technical field of using microscopes to view objects and areas of objects that cannot be seen with the naked eye (objects that are not within the resolution range of the normal eye). The three branches of microscopy are optical, electron and scanning probe microscopy.

Optical or light microscopy involves passing visible light transmitted through or reflected from the sample through a single or multiple lenses to allow a magnified view of the sample. The resulting image can then be detected by the eye, imaged on a photographic pate or captured digitally.

A microscope is a complex magnifying glass. In the 1600s, during the time of Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, microscopes consisted of one lens that was shaped so that the refracted light magnified a specimen 100 times its natural size. Other lenses were shaped to increase the magnification to 300 times. The single-lens magnifying lens or glass is a thing of the past. Scientists today use a microscope that has two sets of lenses (objective and ocular), which is called a compound light microscope.