View to a cell

New optics shatter the diffraction barrier, illuminating life within us

Left: L. Schermelleh/Univ. of Oxford; Right: J. Stout/Indiana Univ.

Imagine if your best knowledge of human anatomy came from viewing the body through binoculars from a mile away. You might make out the shape of a hand, but knuckles and fingernails would elude you.