Seeing what the naked eye can't − 4 essential reads on how scientists bring the microscopic world into plain sight

• The microscope is an iconic symbol of the life sciences – and for good reason.
• For the life sciences, where understanding the function of a living thing often requires interpreting its form, imaging is vital to confirming theories and revealing what is yet unknown.

1. Seeing as identifying

• But there is still a resolution gap between the smallest and largest structures of the cell.
• Biophysicist Jeremy Berg drew an analogy to Google Maps: Though scientists could see the city as a whole and individual houses, they couldn’t make out the neighborhoods.
• “I anticipate seeing new theories on how we understand cells, moving from disorganized bags of molecules to intricately organized and dynamic systems,” writes Berg.
• Read more:
  Visualizing the inside of cells at previously impossible resolutions provides vivid insights into how they work

2. Seeing as scoping

• After discerning individual components, scientists are tasked with charting how they interact with each other in the macrosystem of the body.
• Researchers have been charting the brain by stitching together multiple snapshots like a photo mosaic.
• They use different techniques to label a specific cell type and then image the whole brain at high resolution.
• Likewise, knowing where every cell is located relative to each other doesn’t necessarily tell researchers how they function or interact.

3. Seeing as recognizing

• Automated microscopes, for example, have made it possible to take time-lapse images of cells, resulting in massive amounts of data that require manual sifting.
• Neuroscientist Jeremy Linsley and his team encountered this dilemma in their own work on neurodegenerative disease.
• Read more:
  New AI technique identifies dead cells under the microscope 100 times faster than people can – potentially accelerating research on neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's

4. Seeing as appreciating