| Popis: |
The discovery of the optical microscope played an important role in the scientific revolution of the seventeenth century because it enabled one to directly view objects which were invisible to the naked eye. In 1667 Robert Hooke improved the microscope invented in the previous century in Holland and used it to examine the “microscopic” appearance of snowflakes and plants. Others were able to view for themselves the presence of very small objects and the structures of plants, hair, skin, bones etc. The development of X-ray crystallography at the beginning of the twentieth century by von Laue and the Braggs played an equally important role in the scientific revolution which has shaped our lives. The technique they discovered did not enable scientists to look at the molecular world by looking through a more powerful microscope, but it provided data which when processed enabled scientists to calculate the structures of molecules and appreciate their three-dimensional structures. It provided the zeitgeist of our time that the knowledge of the structure would lead to a more profound understanding of the function and properties of that class of molecule. |
