Recommended Books on Microscopes

Microscope World does not sell any books on Microscopes. However, below you will find some Microscope books that may be helpful. Microscope World has provided these links as an easy way to locate some microscopy books quickly.

 

The Microscope And How to Use It

Dr. Georg Stehli, 1970 English edition translated from German, soft cover, 157 pages, b/w illustrations.

This is a more technical book (ages 12 and up) and spends time discussing the preparation of samples, and the variety of microscopic life found around us. This includes life in pond water, plants, animals and bacteria. The book is written in non-technical language but contains some technical concepts such as making thin slices of a specimen and fixing and dehydrating them before mounting as permanent slides.

 

Exploring With the Microscope

1995. Werner Nachtigall. Sterling Publishing. 160 pages, soft cover, full color.

Explore the tiny universes hidden within plants, animals, rocks and minerals, and uncover the wonders of working with a microscope. Learn about lenses and lighting and preparing specimens for study. See how to take photographs through a microscope and view intriguing sights. This is a very popular book and contains more complete and sophisticated information than most microscope books. Best for a motivated child from age 10 up.

 

 

The Microscope Book

1997, Shar Levine and Leslie Johnstone. Sterling Publishing. 

Did you know there are fossils in your toothpaste? Have you ever seen the cells of an onion skin? Discover a whole new world before your eyes by looking into a microscope. Try dozens of experiments using things found around the house, from vegetables to rocks, fish to flowers. See the veins of a leaf and discover the tiny hooks that hold a feather togther. Get to know the parts of your microscope and how lenses work to make an image. For ages 9-12
80 pages, soft cover.

 

Fun with Your Microscope

1998, hardcover (a soft cover exists, 80 pages) Another book by Shar Levine and Leslie Johnstone. 

There are many invisible things that, when under a microscope, spring to life! This book includes hands-on science experiments which illustrates microscope basics, wet mounts, smear and squash slides. It then shows a close up look at some things like bone marrow, cartilage, fur and the icky slime on your teeth in the morning. Full color photographs and illustrations.

 


Guide to Microlife

by Kenneth G. Rainis, Bruce J. Russell, soft cover, 288 pages, 1997

Another excellent (but expensive!) book on micro life. It concentrates mostly on aquatic life (protozoans and aquatic microanimals) but also contains sections on bacteria, microfungi and life found in soils and on vegetation. The excellent color microphotographs are the high point in this book even though the text is somewhat technical. (Ages 12 and up).

 


World of the Microscope
 
by C. Oxlade, Corinne Stockley
Reading level: Ages 7-10
Paperback - 48 pages (December 1989)
The Usborne series books are always good and richly illustrated. We haven't reviewed this book yet but I expect it to be good (and the price is right!)

 

 


Complete Book of the Microscope
 
1999 by Kirsteen Rogers (Editor)
Reading level: Ages 9 and up
Soft cover - 96 pages 
Another Usborne series publication. The cover image alone makes you want to get one! Fantastic electron microscope photographs of samples like a fly's eye, flu virus and even individual atoms. Also includes project ideas with step by step instructions on how to use your microscope and see everyday objects.

 

 

Adventures With a Microscope
by Birger Richard Headstrom, formerly associated with the New England Museum of Natural History and an experienced teacher and writer on natural science for young people.
Paperback - 232 pages reprint edition (June 1977 reprinted from 1941 edition) Dover, with 142 illustrations. Partial review from Amazon: "With a simple microscope and this book, you can embark on 59 wonderful adventures in the natural world — make discoveries about the structures of numerous microscopic animals; find out what everyday objects and foods really look like at the cellular level; gain an understanding of how to prepare specimens and slides; and learn about many scientific phenomena such as how a fly can walk upside down on the ceiling. It's all here in simple-to-understand language and 142 clear line drawings. The author first examines under the microscope such everyday objects as a human hair, air bubble, scale of a herring, poppy seed and sugar crystal, and then offers through-the-microscope views of such creatures and objects as the water flea, hydra, house fly, amoeba, euglena, volvox, diatoms, desmids, algae, blood corpuscles, honey bee, rotifer, water-mites, potato starch, and other food substances, lichen, paramecium, coffee, sponge, chalk, yeast, bacteria, mustard, pepper, bryozoan, moss, mushroom, molds, cotton, and other textile fibers, ferns, dragon-flies, flea, spider, roots, and other plant structures, paper, aphid, fingerprints, nervous system of the grasshopper, and more." (Ages 10? and up)

 

A World in a Drop of Water : Exploring With a Microscope

by Alvin Silverstein, Virginia B. Silverstein
Reading level: Ages 9-12
Paperback (September 1998)
Dover

Alvin Silverstein is an accomplished author of many books in science and health. Within every drop of pond water lurks an invisible world, alive with an amazing variety of microscopic animals. And with the help of this book and a microscope, you can bring these tiny creatures into focus and discover the ways in which they live. You'll trace the path of a blob-like amoeba as it stretches out its pseudopods to hunt and gobble up its prey, and you'll see the life-or-death water ballet of a slipper-shaped paramecium as it swims away from its mortal enemy, the pincushion-shaped suctorian. You'll also meet the euglena, classified as both plant and animal; the rotifer, a creature with two wheels of whirling hairlike projections that help it move by squeezing in and out like an accordion; and the incredible hydra, a fearsome bully that constantly threatens other small animals with its crown of grasping tentacles. 

 

How to Know the Protozoa

by Theodore L. Jahn, soft cover, spiral bound, 1979

If you are studying single celled life found in fresh water then you should have this book! It's expensive but worth every penny. When the founder of our company created the three video series "The Protozoans", he relied on this book heavily for research. It includes valuable information and many black and white illustrations of literally hundreds of fresh water protozoa. 

 

 

 

Microscopes and Magnifying Lenses


Janice VanCleave always puts together interesting books. This one focuses on incorporating a microscope when doing a school science project. Listed for students aged 9-12, 112 pages softcover, 1993.

 

 

 

Hidden Worlds: Looking Through a Scientist’s Microscope

by Stephen Kramer (Author) and Dennis Kunkel (Photographer)

Dennis Kunkel has been photographing microscopic worlds for over 25 years. This book shows images from scanning electron microscopes of everyday items such as a mosquito’s foot, pollen, a blade of grass, and sugar crystals. In the book Hidden Worlds Dennis explains how he captures his microscopic images, how he prepares his samples, and how different types of microscopes operate. This book follows Dennis as he collects samples in the field from Mount St. Helens to Hawaii.

 

 

Modern Microscopy: A Handbook for Beginners and Students

by M.I. Cross, Martin J Cole, published in 1922

This is a classic microscopy book that is useful for students and beginners exploring the use of a microscope. The book is broken into two parts:

  1. The Microscope, and Instructions for its Use
  2. Microscopic Objects: How Prepared and Mounted

 

 

Fundamentals of Light Microscopy and Electronic Imaging (Second Edition)

by Douglas B. Murphy and Michael W. Davidson

This book is recommended for graduate students, researchers getting started in the field of microscopy, as well as researchers and professionals. The book describes the hardware of the system, while also explaining the physics principles of microscopy on a simplistic level for basic biologists. The book is a mix of theory and methods. PowerPoint slides of the artwork from the book can be found here.

 

 

Illustrated Guide to Home Biology Experiments

by Robert Bruce Thompson and Barbara Fritchman Thompson

This book is great for middle school and high school students looking for educational and fun experiments. This guide teaches you the basics of biology lab work and shows you how to set up a safe lab at home. Homeschoolers as well as hobbyists can use this book to learn biology at home.

 

 

An Introduction to Digital Photomicrography

by Brian Matsumoto and Carol Roullard

This book provides an overview of microscopy and photomicrography. About a third of the book is devoted to covering a good understanding of the compound microscope and how it works along with the correct setup for various optical and image enhancement techniques. You can read a full review of this book on the Microscopy-UK.org website.

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