ABSTRACT
The modern light microscope was created in the 17th century,
but the origin of its important component, the lens, dates back more
than three thousand years. The ancient Greeks used lenses as burning
glasses, by focusing the sun’s rays. In later years, lenses were used to
create glasses in Europe in order to correct for vision problems. The
scientific use of lenses can be dated back to the 16th century with the
creation of compound microscopes. Robert Hooke, an English physicist,
was the first person to describe cells using a microscope. Antonie van
Leeuwenhoek, a Dutch physicist, improved on the lens design and made
many important discoveries. For all his research efforts, he is referred
to as “the father of microscopy”.
