where would phase contrast microscopy improve image quality
Phase-contrast microscopy Phase-contrast microscopy is particularly important in biology. It reveals many cellular structures that are not visible with a simpler bright-field microscope, as exemplified in the figure. These structures were made visible to earlier microscopists by staining, but this required additional preparation and killed the cells. The phase-contrast microscope made it possible for biologists to study living cells and how they proliferate through cell division.[1] After its invention in the early 1930s,[2] phase-contrast microscopy proved to be such an advancement in microscopy that its inventor Frits Zernike was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1953.[3]