Sand Under A Microscope

Sarfus, a recent optical technique increases the sensitivity of standard optical microscope to a point it becomes possible to directly visualize nanometric films (down to 0.3 nanometre) and isolated nano-objects (down to 2 nm-diameter). The technique is based on the use of non-reflecting substrates for cross-polarized reflected light microscopy.
Ultraviolet light enables the resolution of microscopic features, as well as to image samples that are transparent to the eye. Near infrared light images circuitry embedded in bonded silicon devices, as silicon is transparent in this region. Many wavelengths of light, ranging from the ultraviolet to the visible are used to excite fluorescence emission from objects for viewing by eye or with sensitive cameras.
Phase contrast microscopy is an optical microscopy illumination technique in which small phase shifts in the light passing through a transparent specimen are converted into amplitude or contrast changes in the image. A phase contrast microscope does not require staining to view the slide. This microscope made it possible to study the cell cycle.
The traditional optical microscope has recently been modified into a digital microscope, where, instead of directly viewing the object, a charge-coupled device (CCD) is used to record the image, which is then displayed on a computer monitor.