[5][6] Time-lapse microscopy is primarily used in research, but is clinically used in IVF clinics as studies has proven it to increase pregnancy rates, lower abortion rates and predict aneuploidy[7][8] Modern approaches are further extending time-lapse microscopy observations beyond making movies of cellular dynamics.

Inspired by Victor Henri's microcinematic work on Brownian motion,[15][16][17] he used the newly invented ultramicroscope to study the movements of the syphilis bacteria.

[18] At the time, the ultramicroscope was the only microscope in which the thin spiral shaped bacteria was visible.

Using an enormous cinema camera bolted to the fragile microscope, he demonstrated visually that the movement of the disease-causing bacteria is uniquely different from the non-disease-causing form.

[22] During World War II, Carl Zeiss AG released the first phase-contrast microscope on the market.

[1] By setting up some of the first time-lapse experiments with chicken fibroblasts and a phase-contrast microscope, Michael Abercrombie described the basis of our current understanding of cell migration in 1953.

[23][24] With the broad introduction of the digital camera at the beginning of this century, time-lapse microscopy has been made dramatically more accessible and is currently experiencing an unrepresented raise in scientific publications.