Through a Microscope

Through a Microscope Written by Cheryl Reif -Snyder Focus Question How do microscopes help people learn about the world?

《透过显微镜》 作者：谢丽尔·赖夫-斯奈德 焦点问题：显微镜如何帮助人们认识世界？

barely visible. A human hair is one of the smallest things the human eye can see. Imagine, though, if you could shrink yourself until that hair looked as thick as your arm. What would you see? The hairs on a fly's legs would look like huge spikes. The fly would look like a monster with giant eyes. That's the close -up view a microscope allows.

几乎看不见。 人类的头发是人眼能看到的最小物体之一。 不过想象一下，如果你能缩小自己，让那根头发变得和你的手臂一样粗。 你会看到什么呢？ 苍蝇腿上的细毛会看起来像巨大的尖刺。 这只苍蝇会像个长着巨眼的怪物。 这就是显微镜能带给我们的特写视野。

the first simple microscopes. For thousands of years, people have wanted to take a closer look at their world. The ancient Greeks used glass balls filled with water to make objects look larger. The Romans discovered that glass that was thick in the middle and thin on the edges made things look bigger. This was the first magnifying glass. People learned how to make better glass lenses in Europe in the 1600s. With that discovery, the microscope was invented. At first, the microscope was just a sort of fancy magnifying glass. Most magnifying glasses only make things look about 5 to 10 times larger in size. That was the power of the first simple microscopes.

最早的简易显微镜 几千年来，人们一直想要更近距离地观察世界。 古希腊人用装满水的玻璃球放大物体。 罗马人发现，中间厚、边缘薄的玻璃能让物体看起来更大。 这就是最早的放大镜。 17世纪的欧洲人学会了制作更优质的玻璃镜片。 有了这个发现后，显微镜诞生了。 一开始，显微镜不过是一种精致的放大镜。 大多数放大镜只能把物体放大5到10倍左右。 这就是最早的简易显微镜的放大能力。

Compound Microscopes Early microscope users found that they could put two magnifying glasses in a row. The second lens magnified the image from the first lens. This made the image look even bigger. With the two lenses working together in a single microscope, the compound microscope was born. Today, compound microscopes can make objects look up to 1 ,500 times bigger.

复合显微镜 早期显微镜使用者发现，可以把两个放大镜依次组合使用。 第二块镜片会放大第一块镜片形成的图像。 这样就能让图像变得更大。 当一台显微镜里有两块镜片协同工作时，复合显微镜就诞生了。 如今，复合显微镜最高可以把物体放大1500倍。

magnified 20 to 30 times. One of the early microscope users was Robert Hook. Hook was one of the first people to take careful notes on what he saw through a microscope. He published his notes in a book filled with drawings. Hook's book had close -up views of a louse and a flea. He drew the eyes of a fly in greater detail than anyone had ever seen before. Hook also sketched parts of plants and seeds. When he looked at a piece of cork under a microscope, he discovered that it was made of tiny chambers. He called those chambers cells. Over time, the word cell came to be used for the tiny building blocks of all living things.

放大20到30倍 罗伯特·胡克是早期显微镜使用者之一。 胡克是最早认真记录显微镜观察结果的人之一。 他把自己的笔记整理成书出版，书中布满了手绘插图。 胡克的书中收录了虱子和跳蚤的特写观察图。 他绘制的苍蝇眼睛比以往任何人的作品都要精细。 胡克还画了植物和种子的局部结构。 当他在显微镜下观察软木片时，发现软木由许多微小的腔室组成。 他把这些腔室命名为细胞。 久而久之，细胞这个词就用来指代所有生物的微小结构单位了。

magnified 50 to 200 times. Historians believe that Hooke's book inspired another early microscope user, Antony von Leeuwenhoek. Von Leeuwenhoek was a cloth merchant, not a trained scientist. However, he used magnifying glasses to take a close look at the fabric he bought and sold. After he saw Hooke's drawings, Van Leeuwenhoek started making lenses of his own.

放大50到200倍 历史学家认为，胡克的书启发了另一位早期显微镜使用者安东尼·冯·列文虎克。 列文虎克是一名布商，不是受过专业训练的科学家。 但他会用放大镜仔细检查自己买卖的布料。 看过胡克的绘图后，列文虎克开始自己制作镜片。