Biomedical imaging goes subatomic with advanced electron microscopy

Electron microscopy researchers have been given the Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA) Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award for pushing the technology into the picometer range—or one-hundredth the diameter of a hydrogen atom.

Hailing the technology’s new potential in the realms of nanotechnology and biomedical medicine, the global financial group gave the award in basic sciences to German physicists Knut Urban, Maximilian Haider and Harald Rose.

The researchers were chosen to receive the award for "greatly enhancing the resolving power of electron microscopy by developing aberration-corrected electron optics, a breakthrough enabling subatomic precision," according to a Jan. 21 statement by company officials.

Prior to this breakthrough, electron microscopy suffered low resolution and little progress had been made, resulting in limited funding for research from state agencies. It took just under 10 years to come up with a theoretical breakthrough and a prototype to bring electron microscopy to the one-trillionth of a meter range, which allows researchers to observe the movement and atoms as they interact with each other. By imaging atoms, researchers can now determine how properties like hardness or conductivity play out in the interactions and behavior of particles.

The advancement in electron microscopy "arrives at a time where the developing nanosciences, in particular physics and chemistry as well as the related nanotechnologies, are calling for high-resolution instrumentation for research, synthesis and validation of technologies," said Achim Bachem, chairman of the board of Research Center Julich and vice president of the Helmholtz Association of German National Research Centers, in the release.