Have you ever looked through a microscope? If you have, you will have come across a slide. It is the specimen, possibly a micro-organism, arranged on a piece of glass so it can be magnified and looked at through a microscope.
Have you ever looked through a microscope? If you have, you will have come across a slide. It is the specimen, possibly a micro-organism, arranged on a piece of glass so it can be magnified and looked at through a microscope.
500 microscopes
Scientists usually mount a specimen on a glass slide and place another piece of glass on top. Sometimes the specimen can be held in place between the pieces of glass with fixing liquid. Nowadays, scientists can prepare as many slides as they like to be viewed through a microscope. The 17th-century discoverer of micro-organisms, Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, made a new microscope for every specimen he prepared. He produced around 500 microscopes in all.