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Spectacles were first made in Italy
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Two Dutch spectacle makers (father and son) created the first microscope
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Robert Hooke's famous "Micrographia" is published, which outlines Hooke's various studies using the microscope.
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Anton van Leeuwenhoek, who used a microscope with one lens to observe insects and other specimen. Leeuwenhoek was the first to observe bacteria. 18th century: As technology improved, microscopy became more popular among scientists. Part of this was due to the discovery that combining two types of glass reduced the chromatic effect.
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Joseph Jackson Lister discovers that using weak lenses together at various distances provided clear magnification.
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A mathematical theory linking resolution to light wavelength is invented by Ernst Abbe.
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Richard Zsigmondy invents the ultramicroscope, which allows for observation of specimens below the wavelength of light.
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Transparent biological materials are studied for the first time using Frits Xernike's invention of the phase-contrast microscope.
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Just six years after the invention of the phase contrast microscope comes the electron microscope, developed by Ernst Ruska, who realized that using electrons in microscopy enhanced resolution.
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3-D specimen images possible with the invention of the scanning tunneling microscope by Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer.