Instruments like cryo-electron microscopes and space telescopes have amplified our ability to explore the microscopic and cosmic, transformed our capacity for discovery. Limitations in our sense of vision have driven us to invent and share new instruments of knowledge discovery. A significant advancement occurred in 1931 with the use of the transmission electron microscope (TEM), which could magnify up to 1 million times. In the 1930s, electron microscopes improved resolution to 0.05 nanometers (nm), an increase to 2 million times magnification. The Hooker telescope was built in 1917 and offered 3 times resolution and 105 times improvement in light-gathering power over the Dorpat.