While today a picture of a serious looking person peering into a microscope may suggest “science” to the general public, we noted in our last column that this was not always so. In the early 19th century, for example, the microscope was seen by many as a hobby, interesting yes, but not as worthy of respect as an amateur's telescope.

Microscopes improved and soon, through the insight of the likes of Ernst Abbe, reached a state of perfection which was not greatly improved upon until recently. Once aberrations were well corrected for and glasses of high refractive index commonly utilized, further improvements in numerical aperture became increasingly difficult to receive. The only way to improve resolution seemed to be to decrease the wavelength of light used to illuminate the sample.