Microscopes

In a breakthrough study, scientists built a new kind of "super microscope" letting them zoom in on living human cells with incredible detail. This offers a new real time insight into how the flu virus tries to slip inside cells.

Researchers have combined two microscopic imaging techniques in one microscope, providing scientists with a high-resolution method of tracking single molecules in a cellular context, letting them visualize, in minute detail, what’s happening inside cells.

A bright red waterfall isn’t something you’d expect to see on the icy landscape of Antarctica, but that’s what’s pouring out from the foot of Taylor Glacier. Scientists now claim to have solved the mystery behind the crimson waters of Blood Falls.

Using AI, researchers have created the first map of a protein group known as the Commander complex, which functions as a "postal worker" in the body. The new understanding opens the door to new drugs and modalities for fighting a range of conditions.

This stunning image may look like a particularly lively Jackson Pollock painting, but it’s actually an example of a new cell imaging technique. The subject? A human retina.

Move over, macro: researchers have created the world’s smallest silicon LED and holographic microscope, and among its uses is a hack that'll let you use your smartphone to view objects as tiny as a single human skin cell in brilliant high resolution.

Caltech scientists have created a quantum microscope that taps into the quirky quantum rules to see tiny details much more clearly. Using pairs of entangled photons allows the instrument to double the resolution of images without damaging the sample.

Scientists at Duke University have developed an incredibly powerful new camera that combines dozens of lenses to capture images and video at resolutions of thousands of megapixels, in three dimensions.

History is full of artifacts that later turn out to be fakes, but occasionally the opposite can happen. New analysis of ancient Roman coins long dismissed as forgeries has found they seem to be authentic, revealing a previously unknown Roman emperor.

Scientists at Duke University have created a real-time video that captures the frantic movements of a single virus as it tries to infect a cell. The video shows a part of the process that’s normally hard to see.

If you needed more motivation to brush your teeth, this could do the trick. Scientists have discovered that cavity-causing bacteria and fungi in saliva can team up to form “superorganisms” that can sprout limbs to crawl and even leap across teeth.

The microscopic world is important to understand, but tricky to study in detail. Researchers at EPFL have now developed a new microscopy technique that combines two existing ones, allowing scientists to build high-definition 3D images of cells inside and out.