"New microscopy techniques, particularly those involving fluorescence microscopy and the new fluorescent probes that are being developed, have made it possible for researchers to do many different things that would have been totally impossible to do two years ago," says Fred G. Lightfoot, director of the Center for Microscopy and Image Analysis at the George Washington University Medical Center in Washington, D.C. Besides magnifying cells and other microscopic objects, scientists are now viewing subcellular organelles and making quantitative measurements of dynamic intracellular activities.
In the 1960s, the electron microscope, in which beams of electrons form a magnified image, allowed researchers to see cells as never before-magnified millions of times with exceptional detail. While the electron microscope is still useful for many applications in biology and materials science, for life scientists, electron microscopy may go the way of the dinosaur. The harsh treatment necessary to prepare biological samples for bombardment with ...
