The science lab supply store is full of highly specialized items that are used in a variety of niche fields. Such is the nature of science as a whole. There’s a lot out there to be discovered and the arsenal of tools to quantify discovery is only growing more substantial with technological progress.

You remember the compound microscopes of grade school that were among your laboratory supplies. They may have had varying ranges of magnification capabilities, but they were predominantly being used to introduce young minds to how microscopic life is. For those young scientists with piqued interest, many would go on to study at higher levels and eventually use electron microscopes.

Both types of microscopes are necessary tools for any laboratory, but the electron microscope is a little less well understood than the compound microscope. Let’s see what all the fuss is about.

Compound light microscopes require light to produce a magnified image. Even so, they’re limited to about 1000x. There comes a point that the wavelength of white light is too long to show clear resolution of something that’s too small.

Electron microscopes use streams of electrons because electrons have a much shorter wavelength than white light and provide clearer resolution of things so small that compound microscopes could never clearly resolve. A 100,000-volt electron stream is focused on the section that needs to be magnified, the section is then manipulated and scanned into a computer program that can achieve magnification above 20 million times.

Electron microscopes scan images where white light cannot, though compound microscopes show more tangibly real iterations of life as it sits in front of you. Any lab supply store will have and recommend that your lab have both types.

Science is all about the best tools for effective inquiry and experimentation. Sometimes even finding the best tool for a job takes a bit of trial and error. So don’t limit yourself and your lab to the status quo, sharpen your tools, get some new ones, and try things out. A lot of discovery happens inadvertently while sharp minds test new theories and divert from the crowd.