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Physical limits mean that electron microscopy may be nearing highest possible resolution. Plans for the next generation of electron microscopes have been dealt a blow by the discovery of an unexpected source of noise that could frustrate efforts to improve resolution to well below the size of an atom. Researchers working for a leading manufacturer of advanced optics describe the noise source in a paper1 now in press. They think that they can find a way to mitigate it, but electron microscopists admit that the finding is the latest sign that their costly quest to capture ever more detailed images...

The list of remarkable applications for graphene grows ever longer. This time, scientists in the US and Korea have shown that the single-atom thick carbon membrane can be used as a cover slip for an electron microscope to allow atomic-resolution observations of wet chemistry - something that is notoriously tricky to achieve. The graphene cover slip allows researchers to watch liquid chemistry taking place in much greater detail © Image courtesy of Alivisatos, Lee and Zettl research groups, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and KAIST The researchers wanted to investigate how platinum nanocrystals form from solution. 'Seeing the crystals form at...

Spearheading: scanning electron microscopy reveals a large magnetofossil from an unknown organism surrounded by smaller magnetofossils from bacteria. Scientists have unearthed giant magnetic fossils, the remnants of microbes buried in 55-million-year-old sediment. The growth of these unusual structures during a period of massive global warming provides clues about how climate change might alter the behaviour of organisms. Some bacteria, both living and fossilized, contain magnetite — magnetic iron oxide crystals — that the organisms are thought to use to navigate, orienting themselves along the magnetic field lines of the Earth. But the new fossils are "unlike any magnetite crystal...

Researchers at MIT's George R. Harrison Spectroscopy Lab have detected tiny twitches and vibrations in the membranes of individual cells and neurons by using a powerful and noninvasive imaging technique. Down the line, Michael Feld, director of the lab, hopes to use the technique to create three-dimensional images, illuminating even finer activities within living cells. The goal, says Feld, is to "study the structure of a living cell and the way it changes as circumstances change." Today's molecular imaging techniques come with a host of pros and cons. Among the most widely practiced techniques is electron microscopy, which creates highly...