electron microscopy

EPR pulsed dipolar spectroscopy is being highlighted as a tool for structural biology. The technique measures distances between spin labels in proteins and other biomolecules, allowing researchers to map structures that are difficult to study by conventional methods such as X-ray crystallography or cryo-electron microscopy. Coverage so far is limited, and little detail has been provided beyond the technique's application to structural biology research.

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.