For anyone whos missed it:
This years nobel prize in chemistry is going to Stefan Hell for his outstanding work in microscopy. You might think this is not such a big deal but look at the difference in the above picture and think what it can do for science.
And for the nerds, here are the facts about the photo:
"Untangling Neurofilaments
Neurofilaments are intermediate filaments in the axon's cytoskeleton, which provide stability and determine the axon's diameter. But with widths of ~10 nm, individual neurofilaments aren't distinguishable with standard confocal microscopy (left). In contrast, STED microscopy reaches resolutions ~25 nm, and thus, can visualize the distribution of neurofilaments inside axons (right).
Image: The OGlcNAcylated epitope of the neurofilament medium subunit was immunolabeled in redifferentiated human neuroblastoma cells and visualized by standard confocal microscopy (left) or with STED microscopy (right) using a homebuilt setup, called a supercontinuum STED microscope, with a white light supercontinuum laser source operated in the visible range of the spectrum."