What exactly is a darkfield microscope?
A darkfield microscope is simply a standard laboratory microscope, to which certain optical techniques are utilized to transform how light comes through the specimen being viewed. For example, let’s say we are viewing live blood on a glass specimen slide. The normal mode of a microscope is called ‘brightfield’. In this mode of viewing, light shines straight through the specimen. When light shines straight through a specimen, transparent objects are invisible. It’s as if you were standing to the side of a sunny window gazing through dust. If there was a white wall between you and the dust, you’d never see the dust because it is transparent when trying to be seen against the white wall. However, if you put a black curtain where the white wall is, all of a sudden the dust pops into view. The darkfield microscope does the same thing. The specimen sits over a dark background (or field), and light is angled onto the specimen from the sides. Things that were once invisible now come into view.
