Preface to the book

I have long considered writing an introductory book on microscope usage and specimen preparation. While the are already several books available on this topic, Many of these are either dated or out of print altogether. I found out that the vast majority of microscopy-related literature is either too specific and advanced or written for children. I was missing an intermediate level text.

I am well aware that writing for the Web is different than writing a textbook. I therefore included many bullet-pointed lists and attempted to split up the topics into smaller parts. Many of the chapters will be expanded later on and more topics will be added – a major advantage over printed texts.

I am well aware that not everyone might agree with some of the more opinionated parts of this book. Especially the topic of microscope purchase sometimes stirrs up emotions on Web forums.

Please feel free to send me a mail if you have any further questions. This helps me to include more topics.

Oliver Kim
February 2013