Description: This seminar provides an overview of the historical contributions that microscopy has made to the life sciences, and not only, for more than one hundred and fifty years now. Major topics for understanding the microscope, such as resolution, numerical aperture, image brightness, depth of field, field of view, objective working distance and the useful magnification range, are discussed will be discussed throughout the course. Emphasis will be given to the applications of microscopy that can be as manifold as life itself.

Part A (2 hours – oral presentation)
Microscopy History, Basic Functions and Applications

Part B Laboratory (2 hours)
Two working groups

1 hour
Laboratory techniques in microscopy

1 hour
Virtual Laboratory Training, Human Protein and Cell Atlas Project

Recommended reading list:
1. Snyder J. L.. 2015. Eye of the Beholder : Johannes Vermeer, Antoni Van Leeuwenhoek, and the Reinvention of Seeing. WW Norton & Co 2. Broll B. 2010. Microcosmos : Discovering the World Through Microscopic Images from 20X to Over 22 Million X Magnification. Firefly books ltd

Guest speaker of this seminar is the visual artist Professor Rob Kesseler.
Art Science and the Artisan

To move out into another’s territory, to engage with their discipline in a way that goes beyond the superficial, to share ideas and to explore areas of commonality and difference is a privilege. Perhaps we are moving to a time when it is becoming inevitable that the territories of art & science will again converge, we might go as far as to say it is essential.

For the past seventeen years I have collaborated with scientists across a range of specialisms, plant morphologists, cell biologists, bacteriologists and geneticists, to explore the living world at a microscopic level. It is an astonishing territory of complex patterns and structures that underpin life, one which I am passionate to share and inspire others through the artworks, books and events I create.Art Science and the Artisan will reveal some of the convergent territories and histories that unite the arts & sciences and underpin my work.