A revolutionary new microscope could reveal the hidden machinery of life

Almost a century ago, a breakthrough in microscopy gave scientists an entirely new way to examine the inside of cells. Known as phase contrast, the technique made previously faint or nearly invisible cellular structures much easier to distinguish. Its importance was recognized with a Nobel Prize in 1953.

Now, physicists at the University of California, Berkeley, have brought that same principle to electron microscopy, a technology capable of magnifying objects roughly 10,000 times more than conventional light microscopes.

The researchers have developed a device called a laser phase plate that could significantly improve cryoelectron microscopy (cryo-EM). This powerful imaging method has transformed the study of protein structures and helped speed up drug discovery over the past decade. Even so, it has a major limitation: Most human proteins are so small that obtaining clear images of them remains extremely difficult.