How can we see Microbes? Microbes range from very small to almost unimaginably small— too tiny to see with our eyes! Because of science, however, we're able to see what microbes look like in 3 ways. The oldest method is to use a light microscope first developed in the 17th century. Even then, the only microbes big enough to be seen through a microscope were bacteria and protozoa. To see viruses, we must turn to the electron microscope— developed in the early 1930's. But viruses are so tiny that even with an electron microscope it's hard to see them in any detail. For more detail, we turn to x-ray crystallography, a technique that was first developed at the turn of the century.