Abstract

Standard accounts have perpetuated the belief that single-lensed microscopes can generate only indistinct and chromatic images. Numerous attempts to reprise those pioneering experiments have recently been made by several technical groups, and their results have served to perpetuate this belief. In today’s presentation we shall see videomicrographs that recreate exactly what was observed in the 17th century by scientists such as Hooke and Leeuwenhoek. The results offer a radically different view of how microscopy began.

Brian Ford is President of the Cambridge Society for the Application of Research (CSAR, www.csar.org.uk ). He has written over 30 books and many hundreds of papers. His research has been extensively published in journals including New Scientist, Scientific American, Nature, The Microscope and the British Medical Journal. He has written for The Times and The Guardian. He is well known for many programmes on radio, where he hosted the weekly Science Now, and television, as host of series including ‘Computer Challenge’ and ‘Food for Thought’. See www.brianjford.com for further details.

Copies of his book “SINGLE LENS - STORY OF THE SIMPLE MICROSCOPE ” will be available for purchase after the lecture.

Contact: John O’Toole for further information. Free admission. Open to the public. Suitable for GCSE students. No tickets, so arrive early to get a good seat.

Organised by CU ChemSoc, SCI Cambridge & Great Eastern Region & RSC Mid-Anglia Section