If you were asked to picture a microscope, you'd probably think of a light microscope.

如果让你想象显微镜的样子的话，你可能会想到光学显微镜。

He designed his own light microscope, which used multiple glass lenses to light and magnify specimens.

他设计了自己的光学显微镜，使用多个玻璃透镜来照亮和放大标本。

They let scientists use a kind of light microscopy called fluorescent microscopy to study specific parts of a sample.

科学家使用一种叫做荧光显微镜的光学显微镜来研究样品的特定部。

This makes them more easily visible under a light microscope, and scientists can overcome the Abbe diffraction limit.

这使得它们在光学显微镜下更容易看到，科学家可克服阿贝衍射极限。

The invention of the visible-light microscope late in the sixteenth century introduced a previously unknown realm of single-celled plants and animals.

16世纪，光学显微镜发，此项发揭开了人们对未知动植物的了解。

Light microscopes let us observe things that are at least 250 nanometers apart, which is about the thickness of a human hair.

光学显微镜可让我们观察到至少 250 纳米的东西，这大约是人类头发的粗细。

And while there are variations, all of them basically work by shining light onto an object, and magnifying the image using lenses.

虽然有一些不同，但所有的光学显微镜基本上都是通过将光照射到物体上，并使用镜头放大图像来工作的。

This physical limit to light microscopes is called the Abbe diffraction limit, named after the German physicist who worked it out in 1873.

光学显微镜的这个物理极限被称为阿贝衍射极限， 1873 年德国物理学家的名字命名。

These molecules are smaller than the wavelength of light, which means that we can never see them directly, even with the best light microscopes.

这些子比光的波长还小，也就是说，我们永远不可能直接看见它们，即使用最先进的光学显微镜也做不到。

It's also too tiny to be seen with a light microscope, so to visualize it, you need a darkfield microscope with use of immunofluorescence is required.

这种细菌也因为体型太细而难在光学显微镜下显像，所为了能够看见钩端螺旋体，人们需要使用暗视野显微镜及荧光染色剂。

But they still have their limits—modern optical microscopes cannot image structures smaller in size than the wavelength of visible light, or a few hundred nanometres.

但它们仍有其局限性——现代光学显微镜无法对尺寸小于可见光波长或几百纳米的结构进行像。

On light microscopy, there'll often be mesangial proliferation, or expansion of the mesangium, and upon getting a closer look with electron microscopy, there'll be immune complexes deposited within the mesangium.

光学显微镜下，常常可见系膜增生或系膜扩张，进一步电镜下观察，可见免疫复合物沉积于系膜上。

For centuries, scientists have been limited by the fact that optical microscopes couldn't achieve a resolution smaller than 0.2 micrometers, or half the wavelength of visible light.

几个世纪来， 光学显微镜无法达到小于 0.2 微米（ 或可见光波长的一半） 的辨率这一事实限制了科学家们。

An optical microscope, with a typical resolution of about 250 nanometres, can then produce images of individual elements within cells that are, in reality, only 60 nanometres in width.

典型辨率约为 250 纳米的光学显微镜可生细胞内单个元素的图像，而实际上这些元素的宽度仅为 60 纳米。