The Ultimate Resolution
Optics & Photonics Focus
Volume 12 Story 5 - 16/2/2011

Inside a fluorescent molecule

The molecule shown in the picture belongs to the group of porphyrins; heme, the red pigment in blood cells, also belongs to the same group. Ho and collaborators have demonstrated that they are able to zoom in on a single molecule and create a map of its fluorescence, with a resolution never achieved before, thus showing, in quite fine detail, how the molecule works inside.
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Inside a fluorescent molecule. The molecule shown in the picture belongs to the group of porphyrins; <i>heme</i>, the red pigment in blood cells, also belongs to the same group. Ho and collaborators have demonstrated that they are able to <i>zoom in</i> on a single molecule and create a map of its fluorescence, with a resolution never achieved before, thus showing, in quite fine detail, how the molecule works inside.