Imaging with a high energetic electron beam is actually in contrast to light microscopy a “single shot in the dark” because it quickly destroys the sample. Imaging with visible light, on the other hand, has the great advantage of being able to register GSK461364 datasheet dynamic processes. The development of three-dimensional light microscopy with confocal microscopes and the nowadays widespread application of in vivo fluorescent proteins, such as selleck GFP, have been recognized as an important step in the development of science (see Nobel Prize for chemistry 2008 on nobelprize.​org). This enabled ways to watch processes that were previously

invisible, such as the development of nerve cells in the brain or how cancer cells spread. The recent increase in impact of (light) microscopy is also obvious by looking at the contributions in “Biophysical techniques in photosynthesis”, a book with the same scope as this special issue, edited by the late Jan Amesz

and Arnold Hoff in 1996 (Amesz and Hoff 1996). Of its 24 chapters, only one was devoted learn more to (electron) microscopy. Out of the many microscopy techniques, some traditional aspects and emerging methods relevant to photosynthesis have been selected for this part of the special issue. Four chapters are on light microscopy, two on EM, and one on scanning probe microscopy. In the first chapter, Cisek et al. start with a general introduction to light microscopy and its historical development. Emerging as well as most frequently used optical microscopy techniques are reviewed, including the above mentioned three-dimensional Fenbendazole light microscopy with confocal microscopes and the enhancement of contrast by phase contrast microscopy.

One of the emerging techniques is nonlinear microscopy. It presents numerous advantages over linear microscopy techniques including improved deep tissue imaging, optical sectioning, and imaging of live unstained samples. Nonetheless, nonlinear microscopy is in its infancy, lacking protocols, users, and applications; hence, this review focuses on the potential of nonlinear microscopy for studying photosynthetic organisms. Fluorescence techniques have a special place in photosynthesis, not in the least because fluorescence provides information about the lifetime of the excited states. Chen and Clegg give a short account of lifetime-resolved imaging, in order to acquaint readers who are not experts with the basic methods for measuring lifetime-resolved signals throughout an image. They present the early fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLI) history, instruments and experiments and discuss briefly the fundamentals of the fluorescence response that one is measuring, and introduce the basic measurement methodologies. Fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM) is a technique that visualizes the excited state kinetics of fluorescence molecules with the spatial resolution of a fluorescence microscope.