Fun with Light and Single Molecules
Presenter: William Moerner
Published: July 2015
Age: 18-22 and upwards
Views: 1393 views
Tags: molecule;fluorescence;single;super-resolution;resolution
Type: Lectures
Source/institution: Lindau-Nobel
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More than 25 years ago, single molecules were first detected optically, but how do we really detect a single molecule today, and what good is it? It is an amazing fact that you can even detect single molecules with your own eyes. When a new regime of science is breached, surprises often occur: single molecules show amazing dynamics, blink on and off, and can even be controlled by light. Far from being only an esoteric effect, these ‘switching properties’ of molecules can be used to obtain ‘super-resolution’ and thus circumvent the fundamental optical diffraction limit, roughly half the wavelength used. Essentially, with tiny single-molecule light sources decorating a structure, the on/off process is used to light up only subsets at a time, and a pointillist reconstruction reveals the hidden structure, opening up a new frontier.
