Do all light microscpes only view living cells?

Anonymous #1

Reply 1

Emmmaaaa...

Light microscopes view dead or living specimens

Reply 2

Rohan007best

Original post by Emmmaaaa...

Light microscopes view dead or living specimens

electron microscopes are only dead cells right? can you put a living cell in an electron one will the electrons kill the cell and make it viewable under the microscope?

(edited 11 months ago)

Reply 3

K.online.

You cannot put a living specimen under an electron microscope because all cells are placed in a vacuum. Living cells would not survive in that environment as there is no/limited oxygen.

Reply 4

Emmmaaaa...

Original post by Rohan007best

electron microscopes are only dead cells right? can you put a living cell in an electron one will the electrons kill the cell and make it viewable under the microscope?

Yeah electron microscopes only view dead specimens. Basically this is because the electrons are high energy, but also because to be able to see the specimen, the stain used contains heavy metals, which kills the specimen. So the problem isn't that only dead things can be seen with the actual microscope, but that the process of using the microscope kills the specimen.