The document summarizes different types of microscopes, their history, uses, and key capabilities. It discusses:
- The invention of the simple microscope in the 1600s and its early improvements allowing increased magnification.
- How modern compound light microscopes use two lenses to magnify objects too small to see with the naked eye, with magnifications from 100x to 1000x, allowing viewing of living things.
- The development of electron microscopes in the 1930s using electron beams instead of light, allowing much higher magnifications up to 200,000x but requiring specimens be prepared in a vacuum.