By Tia Ghose
Scientists have made a powerful version of the light microscope that can peer into a living cell.
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.sciencenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/7858.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1)
Until now, the ordinary light microscope couldn’t clearly see objects smaller than about 200 nanometers by 600 nanometers – about one-tenth of the size of the average bacterium. While that seems tiny, it’s bigger than many of the parts inside a cell. In contrast, the new microscope can image objects that are as small as 40 nanometers across, says Stefan Hell, a physicist at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry.
“If we could see objects that were as big as a football before, now we can see objects the size of a tennis ball,” Hell says.