Physicist invents microscope that can peer at living brain cells

http://www.physorg.com/news/2012-02-renowned-physicist-microscope-peer-brain.html

at living brain cells

February 3, 2012 by Bob Yirka


(PhysOrg.com) -- Ever since scientists began studying the brain, they’ve wanted to get a better look at what was going on. Researchers have poked and prodded and looked at dead cells under electron microscopes, but never before have they been able to get high resolution microscopic views of actual living brain cells as they function inside of a living animal. Now, thanks to work by physicist Stefan Hell and his colleagues at the Max Planck Institute in Germany, that dream is realized. In a paper published in Science, Hell and his team describe the workings of their marvelous discovery.