Unlocking a cell's inner secrets: MIT scientists are on the road to creating 3-D images of the internal workings of cells-including how they communicate.(MICROSCOPY)

R & D, January, 2007 by Nieswand, Adria

Anton Van Leeuwenhoek, considered the father of modern microscopy, created a way for humans to see beyond the boundaries of the naked eye and observe the teeming life within a drop of water or that within the human circulatory system. Van Leeuwenhoek took the first step to view these 'invisible' worlds, but each year researchers across the globe step up and offer new instruments and techniques needed to peer even deeper.

The matters at hand

The transmission electron microscope (TEM) was the first type of electron microscope to be developed and is patterned exactly like the light microscope but uses electrons instead of light. When pushed to their limit, electron microscopes can make it possible to view objects as small as the diameter of an atom....

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