New microscope allows live 3D imaging of cells

Top level researchers and high-school science students alike have long been restricted by the tradeoffs of traditional microscopy: either you can look at live cells at low resolutions, or you can stabilize your sample and see some more detail. A new technique developed at MIT aims to change that, though, enabling scientists to look at live cells at high resolution -- in 3D. The microscope, which was developed by professor Micheal Feld and his team, generates images by analyzing how different parts of the cell refract light, and combines those images from different angles to create 3D models in real time. The unit has already been used at Harvard Medical School, and based on our struggles to see anything under the 'scope in college, we foresee quite a few students and professors clamoring for these at universities everywhere soon.

[Revrant2394 @ Aug 14th 2007 5:48AM]

Do they really look like that? Wow, the mysterious inspiration for Tye-Dye revealed.

[melloncollie @ Aug 14th 2007 9:31AM]

You sound like a moron, you know that, right?

[Revrant2394 @ Aug 14th 2007 11:57PM]

You sound like a prick, you know that, right?

[blahlebn @ Aug 14th 2007 6:34AM]

coolies, this will make my major in cell biology fun!

[SneezyPorcupine @ Aug 14th 2007 8:01AM]

Hah thats actually quite the leap. And now the question becomes...wats inside the cell?

Or is that picture that the article has up an actual photo of a cell? Or in any way related to the article? Somehow, wasn't expecting the inside of the cell to look so complex.

AHH!! my puny brain can't handle the possibilities!!!

[Loomis @ Aug 14th 2007 8:59AM]

Ah, that's a C. elegans, everyone's favorite test nematode (as spied on the MIT website)... about 250 microns long. My understanding is that the colors represent different phases in this 2D computed slice of the 3D animal. There's an implicit assumption that each phase is a different cellular structure.

That's cool that they don't need dyes (like confocal microscopy) and can image semi-transparent objects in near-real-time (1/10 second).

[Market research report @ Aug 14th 2007 8:43AM]

but when I was reading Stephen Hawkins - he mentioned that dimension could be X rather than just 3 for any energy sustain particle? -- will it worth to have 3D now?

[mergatroidal @ Aug 14th 2007 9:10AM]

Nilay Patel, I will ask that you follow this story. 3D 'scopes are out there already, but Feld et al. seem to have something affordable for the average Joe.

[mergatroidal @ Aug 14th 2007 9:15AM]

Agreement with Fubar. Physicist stereotypically are not the laugh of any party either. They tend to be rather ...? how shall I say ...? dark, and picky-uny about "things."

[mergatroidal @ Aug 14th 2007 9:16AM]

Agreement with Fubar. Physicist stereotypically are not the laugh of any party either. They tend to be rather ...? how shall I say ...? dark, and picky-uny about "things."

[Fubar @ Aug 14th 2007 10:51AM]

I didn't notice a price in the story, but if it's cheap, that is a healthy advance. Those Zeiss scopes are expensive--equipment grant territory, for most.

[Fubar @ Aug 14th 2007 9:01AM]

Leave it to a bunch of physicists to not have a clue about progress in other fields. This is *not* the first microscope to allow imaging of living cells. Also, staining of cells does *not* require killing the cells, or even the organism. There are quite a few ion-, pH- and voltage-sensitive dyes which can be loaded into living tissues and imaged with a microscope like the Zeiss LSM Live series.