Bioheat and Mass Transfer as Viewed Through a Microscope

Abstract

The first practical light microscopes were invented and applied for laboratory studies of micro-organisms in the 1660’s by van Leeuwenhoek and Hooke 1. The microscope was immediately successful in revealing the mysteries of life and structure at a scale never before possible. Thus was opened the door to centuries of subsequent researchers who have used the microscope as a tool to study and characterize innumerable processes and objects at a size limited only by the resolution of light. By the middle of the nineteenth century commercial manufacturers of quality microscopes were established that exist to the present day. Since then it has been possible for a scientist to set up a state-of-the-art microscopy system without the necessity of being a specialist in optical physics. Microscopes have enabled the investigation of problems and systems of age-old fascination by enabling man to see objects at sizes much smaller than visible to the naked eye.