ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that how the field of biomineralization has been illuminated by hand tracings from the camera lucida, which in conjunction with optical microscopes of the time, enabled scientists to portray the scientifically pertinent levels of structural detail and make comparisons, for very small organisms with low optical imaging contrast. It introduces the concept of the wide-field scanning electron microscopy, a modern method that can also simultaneously provide unexpected and valuable levels of detail and contrast from submicron through macroscopic length scales, with contrast unrelated to an object's optical properties. As with the camera lucida, separate images can be collected at each focal plane, which can then be combined to provide a realistic three-dimensional view of an object of interest. A modern, and significantly more advanced equivalent that can ultimately achieve a similar highly focused and low noise image stack either through photographic or digital image capture, is the confocal microscope.
