How deep we can see inside Nature's smallest secrets? Will it be possible some day in the near future to investigate living structures at atomic level? This area of study is very interdisciplinary, since it applies the principles and the techniques of biology, physics, chemistry, mathematics, and engineering to elucidate the structures of biological macromolecules, of supramolecular structures, organelles, and cells. This book offers updated information on how much information we are able to obtain in the exploration of the inner details of biological specimens in their native structure and composition.The book deals with the implementation of laser beam and stage scanning systems incorporating confocal optics or multiphoton microscopy; the advent of new electro-optical detectors with great sensitivity, linearity, and dynamic range; the possibility of 2D fast image enhancement, reconstruction, restoration, analysis and 3D display, and the application of luminescence techniques (FLIMT, FRET combined with the use of quantum dots), which gives the possibility to investigate the chemical and molecular spatio-temporal organization of life processes; Electron Microscopy and Scanning Force Microscopy (SFM), are also presented, which has opened completely new perspectives for analyzing the surface topography of biological matter in its aqueous environment at a resolution comparable to that achieved by EM.

Updated review of all kinds of microscopy

Optical Microscopy for Cell Imaging.- to Transmission and Scanning Electron Microscopy.- Potential and Limitation of Cytochemistry.- Cryotechniques for Electron Microscopy: A Minireview.- Cell Membrane Specializations as Revealed by the Freeze-Fracture Technique.- Imaging, Measuring and Manipulating Biological Matter from the Millimeter to Nanometer Scale.- Inside the Small Length and Energy Scales of the World of the Individual Biological Molecule.- Scanning Probe Microscopy across Dimensions.- Imaging Cells Using Soft X-Rays.- From Microscopy to Nanoscopy: How to Get and Read Optical Data at Single Molecule Level Using Confocal and Two-Photon Excitation Microscopy.- Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) and Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging Microscopy (FLIM).- Quantum Dots, a New Tool for Real-Time in Vivo Imaging.- Image Acquisition and its Automation in Fluorescence Microscopy.- Stereological and Digital Methods for Estimating Geometrical Characteristics of Biological Structures Using Confocal Microscopy.- Wavelength as the Fourth Dimension in Light Microscopy.- Time as the Fifth Dimension in Microscopy.- Image Deconvolution.- Image Formation in Fluorescence Microscopy.- Atomic Force Microscopy Study on the Pellicle of the Alga Euglena gracilis.- Atomic Force Microscopy Study of Pili in the Cyanobacterium Synechocystis SP. PCC 6803.- Changes of Algae Protein Complex under pH Effect.- Leaf Fluorescence as Diagnostic Tool for Monitoring Vegetation.- Dynamic Holography for Study of Nonlinear Optical Processes in Biological Photoreceptor Molecule.- "Seeing" Lipid Membranes by Solid-State NMR.- Visuomotor Coordination in Behaviour of Pigeons Following Post-Hatching Monocular Experience: An Image Analysis Study.