Electron microscope
Microscopio electrónico
- Date
- 1931–1933 · confidence high
- Place
- Berlin, Germany (Technische Hochschule Charlottenburg)
- Credited to
- Ernst Ruska and Max Knoll (1931; resolution surpassing the optical microscope, 1933); Siemens (commercial, 1939); Reinhold Rüdenberg (1931 patent)
- People
- 👤 Ernst Ruska1906–1988👤 Max Knoll1897–1969
- Field
- Communication
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
Microscope that uses electron beams and magnetic lenses to overcome the diffraction limit of light. It made viruses and cellular ultrastructure visible.
Rüdenberg (Siemens) filed a patent in May 1931, before Ruska's publication; the 1986 Nobel Prize went to Ruska.
What it led to
- Modern virology and cell biology
- Materials science and defect metallurgy
- Scanning electron microscopy (1965) and nanotechnology
Built on
- Cathode rays1869-1879
- The electron1897
- Cathode ray tube (Braun tube)1897
- Wave-particle duality: matter waves1924
- Electron diffraction1927
- De Broglie's wave-particle duality (1924)
- Busch's electron lenses
Made possible
- Holography1947
- Lysosome1955
- Ribosome and its atomic structure1955-2000
- Peroxisome, identification of the organelle1954 (microcuerpos) / 1966 (peroxisoma)
- Scanning tunnelling microscope and atomic force microscope1981
- Connectome1986-2024
- Carbon nanotube1991
- Scanning electron microscope
- Structural virology
- Scanning tunnelling microscopy