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What makes a microscope an important tool in the study of living things?

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John McCann Profile
John McCann answered

Seeing most of the living things on earth requires microscopes.

These things are so small that one can see through them rather well and at a level of detail that can inform us about the inner workings of all living things.

Emily Rivers Profile
Emily Rivers answered

I thought I'd expand a little on John's great answer! Microscopes really are an important tool in the study of living things.

Microscopes can magnify tiny little living things thousands of times so that we can see them properly and use this information to do many amazing things! These include:

  • Making new antibiotics by being able to see and test which tiny bacteria are resistant to certain things
  • IVF treatment - without microscopes we wouldn't be able to tell which sperm are slow or not
  • Examining newly discovered life forms - as John said, most of the living things on Earth are so small that they need to be seen with a microscope, so with these we're able to find out about all the inner workings of the tiny creatures we share our home with!

I hope this has helped a little. You might find this video on the history of the microscope quite interesting:

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