Question: Can you see individual atoms on a normal microscope even if its just a little dot?

Kerry O'Shea answered on 10 Nov 2014:

Hi rosieeeee, great question! No, we can’t see individual atoms on normal microscopes because the smallest distance we can see using light is about a quarter of a millimeter. This is because we can’t see anything smaller than the wavelength of the light used. We can use electrons to look at smaller things, because they have a much smaller wavelength than visible light.

Electron microscopes are more complicated than normal microscopes because we can’t see electrons directly, so we have to fire them at a special screen which emits light when the electrons hit it.