2014 Nobel Prize in Chemistry

For a long time optical microscopy was held back by a presumed limitation: that it would never obtain a better resolution than half the wavelength of light. Helped by fluorescent molecules the Nobel Laureates in Chemistry 2014 ingeniously circumvented this limitation. Their ground-breaking work has brought optical microscopy into the nanodimension.

It was all but obvious that scientists should ever be able to study living cells in the tiniest molecular detail. In 1873, the microscopist Ernst Abbe stipulated a physical limit for the maximum resolution of traditional optical microscopy: it could never become better than 0.2 micrometres. Eric Betzig, Stefan W. Hell and William E. Moerner are awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2014 for having bypassed this limit. Due to their achievements the optical microscope can now peer into the nanoworld.

Two separate principles are rewarded. One enables the method stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscopy, developed by Stefan Hell in 2000. Two laser beams are utilized; one stimulates fluorescent molecules to glow, another cancels out all fluorescence except for that in a nanometre-sized volume. Scanning over the sample, nanometre for nanometre, yields an image with a resolution better than Abbe’s stipulated limit.

Eric Betzig and William Moerner, working separately, laid the foundation for the second method, single-molecule microscopy. The method relies upon the possibility to turn the fluorescence of individual molecules on and off. Scientists image the same area multiple times, letting just a few interspersed molecules glow each time. Superimposing these images yields a dense super-image resolved at the nanolevel. In 2006 Eric Betzig utilized this method for the first time.

ICFO shares in the excitement of this Nobel announcement, especially as the photonic discoveries for which these esteemed colleagues have been awarded the Nobel prize have had a major influence on science conducted at ICFO, such as Prof. Niek van Hulst’s single-molecule contributions as well as super-resolution activities carried out in the labs of Professors Maria Garcia- Parajo, Melike Lakadamyali and Pablo Lopez-Alvarez. We are grateful for the interest and participation of all three Nobels in ICFO activities and events through the years and will continue to work towards the goals of new knowledge that they have helped to make possible through advances in nanoscopy.

Congratulations Eric Betzig, Stefan W. Hell and William E. Moerner on this great accomplishment!