Methods used to see the bacteria are?
The morphological study of bacteria requires the use of microscopes. Microscopy has come a long way since Leeuwenhoek first observed bacteria over three hundred years ago using hand grounded lenses. Optical or Light microscope, Phase contrast microscopy, Fluorescent microscope, dark field / Dark ground microscope and Electron microscope Live bacteria do not show much structural detail under the light microscope due to lack of contrast. Hence it is customary to use staining techniques to produce color contrast. Bacteria may be stained in the living state, but this type of staining is employed only for special purposes. Routine methods of staining of bacteria involve drying and fixing smears - procedures that kill them. Bacteria have an affinity to basic dyes due to the acidic nature of their protoplasm. Simple stains, Negative staining, Impregnation methods, Differential stains, Gram stain, Acid fast stain and Albes stain. Ref: Ananthanarayan & paniker's Textbook of miMicrobiologyth edition pg no 10
Microscopy
Stained preparations
Both
None
general microbiology