The Importance Of The Electron Microscope

Introduction: In 1931 Max Knoll and Ernst Ruska became the first people to accomplish something no one else had ever done before. “…(They) overcame the barrier to higher resolution that had been imposed by the limitations of visible light,” this meant these two men were able to see more on an cellular level than anyone before them (Palucka 2002). Their invention that accomplished this was called the Electron Microscope. “Within a decade, their invention was tweaked to the point that scientists could see up to 10nm and in 1944 it was furthered to the level of 2nm” (Palucka 2002). The electron microscope is a microscope that uses “high voltage, special electron lens, vacuum systems, and bright electron guns” to provide the precise and clear picture that it gives scientists to look at (Palucka 2002). On this level on microscopy, scientists could see new membrane bound organelles they did not know

The plasma membrane is the outermost coating in eukaryotic cells that allows the cell to transport nutrients, drugs, and objects into and out of the cell. The plasma membrane is essential to all the other membrane bound organelles successful functioning. Within an individual cells plasma membrane there are many different components that come together to help the cell complete all the functions a cell can do. The very basic, but most important part of the plasma membrane is the fact it is selectively permeable. Selectively permeable means that some substances can cross the membrane with ease, some with a little bit of help, and some substances cannot cross the membrane at all. The plasma membrane can be selectively permeable because it is constructed of phospholipids and cholesterol. The cholesterol allows the membrane to be semifluid by giving the membrane its ability to stop foreign objects from coming in. Cholesterol is affected by