microscope

[winnits15]

who invented the microscope?

[drestie]

Depends what kind of microscope you are talking about, and even then it's debatable.

Have a look here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_microscop e

and here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_micro scope_technology

[heathfield]

Two Dutch guys, Hans Janssen and his son Zaccharias, around 1590.
Read about it here.

[theprof]

Assuming you're talking about the optical microscope, the answer is that nobody really knows for certain.

For many years in scientific circles, we were taught it was Anton Van Leeuwenhoek, a Dutchman. Not much credence is given to this theory nowadays despite the fact that most of the public still seem to think he invented the instrument.

A Dutch father and son by the name of Janssen are now usually credited with being the inventors of a type of rudimentary microscope somewhere around 1600, before Van Leeuwenhoek was even born.