A spinning disk confocal microscope for live cell imaging in plant animal and fungal cells.

1665年，罗伯特·胡克（Robert Hooke）在使用最早的光学复合显微镜（两个透镜：一个物镜和一个目镜）观察软木薄片上的“盒子”时，第一个引入了“细胞”这个词。他可能并没有完全意识到这一发现的重要性，因为只有当绝大多数生物体是由细胞组成的这一事实变得很明显时，细胞理论才诞生了。1839年，M.J. Schleiden和Theodore Schwann首先提出细胞理论，认为细胞是普遍存在的，是生物体的基本单位。这一理论至今仍是无可争议的，尽管当时竞争对手也曾尝试过。300多年来，显微镜技术的进步使人们对细胞的功能有了令人着迷的发现。电子显微镜使用电子束而不是光，可以放大数十万倍。然而，被检查的材料虽然在时间上是固定的，但却是死的。光学显微镜随着激光技术、成像解决方案、计算机硬件/软件以及荧光生物/化学探针的使用而发展。近几十年来最大的发展之一是共聚焦激光扫描显微镜，它允许用户在一个平面上生成固定材料的三维图像和短的活细胞电影。随着共聚焦显微镜的发展，也有了相应的发展/改进。其中一个这样的发展是旋转磁盘技术与激光照明相结合，高分辨率成像允许用户在三维时间（4D）即活细胞中可视化细胞中的荧光探针。要了解细胞特定成分的作用和功能，这些特征对科学家来说是一个理想的优势。

Robert Hooke in 1665 was the first to introduce the term 'cell' when he was viewing the 'boxes' he saw in slices of cork using one of the earliest optical compound microscopes (two lenses: an objective lens and an eye piece) that he developed. He probably didn't quite realise the significance of this discovery, as it was only when it became apparent that the great majority of organisms are composed of cells that Cell Theory was born. Cell Theory, first proposed by M.J. Schleiden and Theodore Schwann in 1839, states that cells are of universal occurrence and are the basic units of an organism. This theory in still undisputed, although in those days rivals tried. Over 300 years of microscope improvements have led to fascinating discoveries of how cells function. Electron microscopes use beams of electrons rather than light and can magnify by hundreds of thousands of times. However the material being examined although fixed in time is dead. Light microscopes have evolved with the development of laser technology, imaging solutions, computer hardware/software and the use of fluorescent biological/chemical probes. One of the greatest developments in the last few decades has been the confocal laser scanning microscope, which allows the user to generate 3D images of fixed material and short live cell movies in one plane. With the development of confocal microscopy have come parallel developments/improvements. One such development is the spinning disk technology coupled with laser illumination, and high resolution imaging allowing the user to visualise fluorescent probes in cells in 3D with time (4D) i.e in living cells. To understand the role and function of particular constituents of a cell these features are a desirable advantage to a scientist.