electron microscopy

A trade publication has highlighted the use of EPR pulsed dipolar spectroscopy as a technique for structural biology, where it is used to measure distances between spin labels in proteins and other biomolecules. The method complements approaches like cryo-electron microscopy by probing conformational changes and molecular structure in solution.

The 1986 Nobel Prize in Physics is being recalled for recognising electron microscopy and scanning tunnelling microscopy, technologies that use electrons instead of light to image matter down to individual atoms. Ernst Ruska received half the prize for developing the electron microscope, while Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer shared the rest for the scanning tunnelling microscope at IBM Zurich, work that transformed nanoscience and materials research.