When it comes to microscopy, the smallest thing you can resolve is limited by the wavelength of light you're using. With visible light, the limit is about 200 nm, that's about the size of a measles virus.
Today, Allard Mosk at the University of Twente in The Netherlands and a few pals demonstrate an entirely new type of microscopy that doubles this resolution. To show that it works, they use 561nm laser light to image gold nanoparticles just 97 nanometres across and say it should be possible to do even better.
But the most amazing thing about this technique is the lens it uses. Mosk and co achieve their trick using a flat piece of frosted glass (ie a transparent slab which is etched on one side in a way that entirely scatters the light that passes through). Here's how.
To read the rest of the article, click here.