A NANOWIRE suspended in an invisible “force field” of laser radiation could soon be peering into biological samples, taking low-cost snapshots of viruses and proteins with unprecedented resolution.
The microscope works by scanning the superfine tip of the nanowire over an object, all the while emitting a beam of laser light from the end of the wire. Whatever light makes it through the object is captured by an optical sensor behind it to build up a picture of the object’s structure, says Peidong Yang, who built the device with his colleagues at the University of California, Berkeley.
The team’s prototype…
