Introduction

Abstract

The discoveries, advancements, and technologies that we enjoy today are the cumulative effort of millions of curious people over thousands of years. From the people who invented the wheel, the Greek philosophers, Renaissance explorers, instigators of the eighteenth-century enlightenment, Victorian taxonomists … as a contemporary scientist, you are the latest link in a very long chain.

The history of science—and how we have arrived where we are today—is a fascinating topic. I have started this book with a brief history of the microscope. I have also included a brief history of glass, as this has had a direct impact on the development of microscopy.

While the history of science is not essential knowledge, I encourage all scientists to learn about the evolution of their field and to explore the path that has brought us to where we are today.

The Microscope not only assists studies, and develops objects of profound interest, but it also opens up innumerable sources of entertainment and amusement, in the ordinary conventional acceptance of these terms; -it discloses to us peculiarities and attractions in abundance; -it impresses us with the wonderful and beautifully-skilful adaptation of all parts of creation, and fills our minds with additional reverence and admiration for the beneficent and Almighty Creator

Jabez Hogg [1], The Microscope.