For years, things like Electronic Microscopes have dominated biomedical visualization.  However, these solutions often required damaging or killing the tissues to be viewed, making visualization of live processes impossible.  Now, classic microscopes are coming back in a big way with new technology that allows nano-scale visualization of individual cells and cell components.

Now light is making a comeback thanks to giant steps in the use of fluorescent molecules – like those that impart glow to certain species of jellyfish. Using various techniques these molecules can be inserted in cells and then activated to outline live subcellular structures down to the level of a few nanometers. A nanometer is one-billionth of a meter barely larger than an atom; a dust mite measures about 200 000 nanometers. “Lens-based microscopy has toppled a barrier that was thought would stand forever ” said Stefan W. Hell director of Germany s Max Planck Institute of Biophysical Chemistry and a leader in the new field.

via Secrets of a cell – The Boston Globe.