Materials and Method of the Biologist
Compound Microscope It all started with this
Electron Microscopes Transmission Electron Microscopes. They can see very good detail, but only when the object is sliced. The electrons pass through the thin image, showing the structure. Can you tell what structure the picture is on the left?
Electron Microscopes Scanning Electron microscopes. These show small images in great detail, but only their surfaces.
Electron Microscopy Which image is TEM, and which is SEM?
Centrifuge This machine spins things so fast that they separate in water. Even cell parts can be separated, such as cell walls and nuclei. The heavier “stuff” gets pushed to the bottom. This is important when we only want to study part of a cell.
How else can we separate cell parts, like DNA? By using electricity. This machine uses electricity to pull apart mixtures of large molecules. It turns the mixtures into separate clumps that we can compare with other animals…very helpful for forensics.
Micrpipettes If we’re going to study small things, we need to measure small quantities of liquids.