Viewpoints in OPFocus

Prof. Niek van Hulst is the first of the authors that will express their viewpoint in articles published regularly in OPFocus. The title of the first issue is “Many photons get more out of diffraction”. In this article, Prof. van Hulst talks about Nanoscopy, i.e. optical microscopy with 10-30 nm detail. This is already a reality, and it has been chosen as “Method of the year 2008” by Nature Methods. Researchers are all aware of the wave nature of light and the ensuing diffraction limit for resolution, so, have the rules of physics been broken? What’s the trick and where’s the catch?