Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Science/2019 January 17

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January 17

Microscopy in the 17th century

The article Microscope states: "The microscope was still largely a novelty until the 1660s and 1670s when naturalists in Italy, the Netherlands and England began using them to study biology, both organisms and their ultrastructure." However, in Ultrastructure, it says: "Ultrastructure (or ultra-structure) is the architecture of cells and biomaterials that is visible at higher magnifications than found on a standard optical light microscope. This traditionally meant the resolution and magnification range of a conventional transmission electron microscope (TEM) when viewing biological specimens such as cells, tissue, or organs." But the TEM did not exist until 1931! So, can anybody help me resolve that apparent contradiction?--Hildeoc (talk) 19:49, 17 January 2019 (UTC)

Added in April 2017, unsourced. See Talk:Microscope/Archive 1#Request for comment on ultramicroscope (comments by the same IP too). I've removed it, as it's unsourced and implausible. Andy Dingley (talk) 20:03, 17 January 2019 (UTC)

@Andy Dingley: Thank you very much indeed!--Hildeoc (talk) 20:21, 17 January 2019 (UTC)