Phase-contrast microscope
Microscopio de contraste de fase
- Date
- 1932-1942 · confidence high
- Place
- Groningen, Netherlands
- Credited to
- Frits Zernike (with Zeiss)
- Field
- Communication
What it is
Zernike adds a phase plate in the focal plane of the objective to turn phase differences of a transparent sample into brightness differences. It lets living cells be seen without staining.
Zernike conceived it around 1932 while studying concave mirrors with a diffraction grating; Zeiss (Jena) manufactured it from 1941 and the Nobel Prize came in 1953.
What it led to
- culture and observation of living cells
- cytology and microbiology without staining
- the 1953 Nobel Prize in Physics