Required Resources

Read/review the following resources for this activity:

• Textbook: Chapter 3
• Weekly Concepts

Initial Post Instructions

Describe a clinical or research scenario that requires the use of a microscope. What microscope is the best choice for your scenario and why? What would be your second choice?

Make sure to post at least two high quality posts. Your instructor will open new topics of discussion throughout the week.

Follow-Up Post Instructions

Respond to at least one peer or the instructor. Further the dialogue by providing more information and clarification.

Writing Requirements

• Minimum of 2 posts (1 initial & 1 follow-up)
• Minimum of 2 sources cited (assigned readings/online lessons and an outside source)
• APA format for in-text citations and list of references

answer 1: 

Hello Professor and Class,

In order to inspect a microorganism, we need a microscope in order to magnify the microbe. If I were looking into plasmodium protozoan (which causes malaria), I’d use an electron microscope, where the method of electron microscopy (EM) is used to produce high-resolution photographs of biological and non-biological specimens. It’s used in biomedical science to look at the structure of tissues, cells, organelles, and macromolecular complexes in great detail.

As an alternative to the electron microscope, I’d use a light microscopy because I’d be able to see molecules well even when they’re sparse within a sample. The light microscope is an instrument that helps you to see fine dimensions of an object. It accomplishes this by enlarging an image produced by a set of glass lenses that concentrate a beam of light onto or around an object before enlarging it with convex objective lenses.

 “A specimen for optical microscopy is generally prepared by mounting a sample on a suitable glass slide that sits on the stage between the condenser and the objective lens (Cowan, Smith 2018).”

answer 2: 

Hi Professor and class,

The clinical or research scenario that requires the use of a microscope includes the study of microorganisms that cause human infections. A scanning electron microscope (SEM) will be the best choice in this scenario as it provides a three-dimensional view of the surface of the microorganism including the cell morphology (Zaefferer, 2011). The second choice would be the transmission electron microscope (TEM) as it helps in providing the details of the internal components of the cell (Zaefferer, 2011). This microscope provides two-dimensional images and is used to view thin specimens (tissue sections, molecules, etc) through which electrons can pass generating a projection image. Both microscopes help in providing excellent resolution properties. SEM mainly focuses on the surface of the sample. Hence, it helps in providing the morphology of cells. TEM on the other hand has a higher resolution when compared to SEM. The drawback of this microscope is that it requires the sample to be cut in thinner sections which are not required in SEM (Zaefferer, 2011). Therefore, for the study of disease-causing microorganisms, it is best to use the scanning electron microscope followed by a transmission electron microscope.