Microscopes

History is full of artifacts that later turn out to be fakes, but occasionally the opposite can happen. New analysis of ancient Roman coins long dismissed as forgeries has found they seem to be authentic, revealing a previously unknown Roman emperor.

Scientists at Duke University have created a real-time video that captures the frantic movements of a single virus as it tries to infect a cell. The video shows a part of the process that’s normally hard to see.

Physicists at the Australian National University say that optical microscopes should get a huge boost in magnification, after their discovery of a new high harmonic laser illumination technique, using a tiny cylinder 1/50th the width of a human hair.

From slime mold resembling a cute mushroom to an unprecedented look at the embryonic hand of a gecko, this year’s winners of the Nikon Small World photo contest reveal the stunning sights of a hidden microscopic universe.

If you needed more motivation to brush your teeth, this could do the trick. Scientists have discovered that cavity-causing bacteria and fungi in saliva can team up to form “superorganisms” that can sprout limbs to crawl and even leap across teeth.

The Nikon Small World in Motion contest delivers a mind-bending array of videos highlighting the microscopic world. This year features psychedelic salts, a nightmarish feeding session and a spectacular depiction of neural cells in a fish embryo.

Because nanoscale objects are so incredibly small, they don't reflect enough light for even the best microscopes to discern details such as their color. A new lighting system, however, addresses that problem by acting as a tiny spotlight.

The microscopic world is important to understand, but tricky to study in detail. Researchers at EPFL have now developed a new microscopy technique that combines two existing ones, allowing scientists to build high-definition 3D images of cells inside and out.

Scientists at Australia's La Trobe University have been developing a new microscope slide that presents cancer cells in color without the need for stains and dyes, and used it to detect breast cancer as part of an early trial.

Ever wondered what the inside of a dinosaur bone looks like in close-up? Or how about a few grains of pollen caught in knots of cotton fabric? Wonder no more thanks to hand-picked highlights from this year’s incredible Nikon Small World Competition.

A groundbreaking video of single-celled organisms moving around the gut of a termite has won this year’s Nikon Small World in Motion Competition. In its 11th year, this video microscopy contest continues to deliver astounding glimpses of tiny worlds.

By taking advantage of recent advances in smartphone technology and the infinite possibilities of Lego, scientists in Germany have built a cheap and easy high-resolution microscope that is part educational tool and part toy.