How Field Microscopes Can Help

Field research may appear like a tiring way to spend one’s day at work, but it can be highly advantageous for scientists who need to back their theories up with observations, anthropologists who have to present detailed studies of their subjects, and even students who are tasked with observing people or environments and need to take down notes for a class. In fact, we are all field researchers in our own right: we like going out into the world, looking at people, talking to them, observing their behavior, and seeing how we can integrate.

Professional field researchers do this kind of observation, but perhaps on a deeper, and probably more routine scale.

They are tasked with producing research that will help advance the life sciences and social sciences, and that can allow people to understand the different aspects of this world better. In the life sciences, botanists, zoologists, geologists, and archaeologists, to name a few, are routinely engaged in field research. In the social sciences, anthropologists, sociologists, and educators are only a few of the people that do work in the field. Each of these different groups will require different tools to work out in the field, and they may be preoccupied with answering their own unique sets of questions through their research.

The Different Tools for Different Kinds of Field Research

Botanists and zoologists do work out in the field in order to make discoveries of new plant and animal species, identify plant pests, and study plants and animals in their natural habitats.

Botanists may take along inventories of known plant species, which can help them classify new species or identify old ones; plastic bags to take samples back to the laboratory; cameras to document their finds; notebooks and pens to write their observations down, or perhaps a laptop to make their work much easier; and a basic dissection kit that can help them cut off plant parts in order to take them back to the laboratory.

Zoologists will also have basically the same equipment. In both cases, these life scientists will most likely carry around a simple stereoscopic microscope. This field microscope can help them look at finer details in insects’ wings, plant parts, soil samples, or even blood samples drawn from animals in order to make identification, classification, and diagnosis more efficient.

Geologists also work out in the field and observe rock formations and movements and behavior of the earth.

Geologists who specialize in earth history may walk out to stratified rock formations, make marks in the rocks to note where the earth may have undergone major changes, and observe how volcanoes behave under certain situations. Their tools will include cameras, laptops or other writing and documentation materials, and simple geological equipment to measure radiation or the strength of certain tremors. They will also need field microscopes to help them look at rocks and look at certain unique characteristics that might help them identify certain materials.

Archeologists and paleontologists need a good deal of tools as they dig out fossils, ruins, and other parcels of our past. They need brushes to gently ease out centuries of dirt from archaeological finds and bones. They need a way to take down notes, and make measurements across plains and plains of archeological digs.

They also need field microscopes in order to look at the finer details of bones, archaeological finds, and other items in the dig in order to check for different characteristics that might point to the origin of a find.

Even Social Scientists Need Microscopes

Anthropologists in particular need microscopes in order to look at their samples or specimens coming from a certain culture. Such finds might include pieces of necklaces, shards of pottery, and other things that might be important to a certain culture. A field microscope, therefore, can be a versatile tool that can aid scientists in looking at finer details that might help them identify finds and know them better.

Although sociologists and educators might not use field microscopes when they conduct their research, they may need the help of other tools, such as their own recording and documentation equipment.

These are only a few tools that researchers use when they go out into the field. For more information, talk to a scientist that you know. As technology advances, the tools for field research will keep on advancing as well. What will not change, however, is the importance that field research has. Observation is certainly no substitute for rigorous lab work or hours in the library, and research, in general, will be better and strengthened by field research.  Read more on this subject