Understanding Phase Contrast Microscopes By Edison Ramsey At Isnare.com Ezine Articles

In 1953, the world recognized the scientific genius that is the phase contrast microscope. Forget high useful - it wasn't just useful, it was crucial for actual live observations of intra-cellular processes like cell division.

Medical and biological sciences research are now focused on the real time, real life observation of living organisms to analyze its components and understand life better than we already do. Specifically designed for live specimens, this type of microscope enables observation of virtually invisible occurrences within a cell.

Obviously more advanced than the typical light microscope, this instrument uses the various refractive abilities of different objects to heighten the contrast between colorless and transparent structures. Under this powerful type of microscopy, specimens remain alive as they do not need to be stained - colored or dyed - to distinguish characteristics.

Light Waves and Visible Contrasts

Light waves peak and valley in regular intervals. The moment they line up, they’re said to be in phase; otherwise they’re said to be out of phase. This basic understanding of light waves is the key to how a phase contrast microscope works – it influences the optical path of light through transparent or colorless objects under observation.

Light waves passing through transparent portions of the specimen is slower then the uninfluenced light. To cause a difference in brightness, a transparent phase-plate mounted on the microscope increases the phase to half a wavelength, making the transparent object outshine its surroundings. This unique feature of phase contrast microscope makes it an indispensable tool in medical and biological observations of living cells.

How It Works

A phase contrast microscope makes use of two light sources – one under your specimen and another that is reflected off your specimen. Now, light passes through any transparent object but gets reflected off the surface of a solid, colorless object. When these light waves condense on a lens placed just above your specimen, it is easy to see if the light waves are in or out of their phase. This phase condenser lens on this type of microscope is analogous to the fluorescent filters in fluorescence microscopes; both make light differentiation possible.

Advances in Biomedical Microscopy Technologies

The latest in biomedical microscopy is the introduction of infinity-corrected phase contrast microscopes. Over the last decades, the largest manufacturers of research and/or professional grade microscopes have introduced this new type of optical system into various microscopy modules. This technology places another lens between the objective and the eyepiece and sets the object image to infinity. This correction makes it possible to introduce auxiliary components in the microscope.

This integrated capability makes imaging a an exciting part of the research. Now, you can capture, store, display – virtually do anything – with images of your specimen. With the flexibility of integrated digital technology, you can capture full color photographs or videos of your specimen and display, store and retrieve them from your computer. These capabilities produce virtually the same images on eyepieces and photo ports, allow you to hook up various types of cameras on to the microscope, which would definitely make training and demonstration more real life.

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