对于科学工具的重要性，著名数学物理学家Freeman J. Dyson教授曾有深刻的阐述：

“New directions in science are launched by new tools much more often than by new concepts. The effect of a concept-driven revolution is to explain old things in new ways. The effect of a tool-driven revolution is to discover new things that have to be explained.”

新科研仪器和工具的出现和发展，使得我们能够进行从来没有过的测量，能够在从来没有过的条件下测量，不光能够帮助我们回答过去无法回答的问题而且更能揭示更多未知的领域，它们一直都是促进科学发展、新学科兴起、激发人的想象力的源动力之一。