Researchers can now peer right into cellular processes and that too in 3D, thanks to an amazing microscope.
The microscopy technique takes images at high speed, so researchers can create dazzling movies about the actual cellular functioning.
The technique is called Bessel beam plane illumination microscopy. The beam sweeps quickly through a sample of cells, allowing scientists to take nearly 200 images per second and build 3D stacks from hundreds of 2D images in one to 10 seconds, reports the journal Nature Methods. He has been inventing and improving microscopes for more than 30 years. Betzig says that many microscopy techniques require that cells be killed and fixed in position for imaging.
There is only so much one can learn from studying dead cells - the equivalent of still photos, he says, according to a Janelia statement.
But live-cell techniques can be problematic because light produced by microscopes can damage the cell over time. Besides cell damage, light causes the fluorescent molecules -- of which there are only so many -- to wink out over time.
The microscopy technique takes images at high speed, so researchers can create dazzling movies about the actual cellular functioning.
The technique is called Bessel beam plane illumination microscopy. The beam sweeps quickly through a sample of cells, allowing scientists to take nearly 200 images per second and build 3D stacks from hundreds of 2D images in one to 10 seconds, reports the journal Nature Methods. He has been inventing and improving microscopes for more than 30 years. Betzig says that many microscopy techniques require that cells be killed and fixed in position for imaging.
There is only so much one can learn from studying dead cells - the equivalent of still photos, he says, according to a Janelia statement.
But live-cell techniques can be problematic because light produced by microscopes can damage the cell over time. Besides cell damage, light causes the fluorescent molecules -- of which there are only so many -- to wink out over time.
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