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Hello, one afternoon in January 1665 Samuel Peeps visited his favorite bookshop and

on impulse bought a volume that took his fancy. On his way home he stopped off at the butcher

for a hare's foot to treat his collic.

The following day he wrote in his diary,

Before I went to bed, I sat up till two o'clock in my chamber reading Mr Hook's

microscopial observations, the most ingenious book that ever I read in my life.

This work by Robert Hook is commonly known as the micrographia.

It's the earliest book in English containing detailed observations and drawings making use a new and revolutionary use of scientific instruments,

and the scientific instrument, and the microscope.

Invented around the turn of the 17th century, the microscope has transformed our understanding of the natural world,

making it possible to examine objects far too small to be seen by the naked eye.

In the last hundred years, the development of the electron microscope and other discoveries have made it

possible to see structures as small as a single atom. We need to discuss the

history and application of the microscope, our Jim Bennett visiting keeper at

the Science Museum in London.

Sir Colin Humphreys, Professor of Materials Science and Director of Research at the University of Cambridge,

and Michelle Peckham, Professor of Cell Biology at the University of Leeds.

Jim Bennett, various names have been suggested as the inventor of the microscope.

Can you give us some examples of the early essays in this?

We have to go back to Middleburg in the Netherlands at the beginning of the 17th century.

...