The Largest Possible Microscope

Extract

In this day of resistance toward big science projects it may be futile to worry about how to produce the largest possible microscope. But since it doesn't cost anything to day dream, and times may change, it is fun to consider superlative enterprises.

One must grant that Ultra High Voltage Electron Microscopes are much larger than we wish they were, and one wonders if there is a contest afoot to see which AEM can have the largest foot print, but a new possibility has arisen which, seriously, could dwarf them all - yet have some possible use.

I am referring to the discovery of an example of a gravitation lens for ordinary light. Now the distinguishing characteristic of a microscope from a telescope is that the object eyepiece and the object near the focal length of the lens.