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Blog
Notes on microscopy, photonics, open science, optics, and the engineering details behind new imaging tools.
Label-Free Super-Resolution Inside Live Cells: Interferometric Image Scanning Microscopy
A Nobel laureate for fluorescence just published a label-free method. Interferometric ISM images live cells at ~120 nm resolution, no dyes, no bleaching.
A Smartphone Microscope That Detects Single Molecules — for Under €350
A portable microscope under €350 detects single fluorophores and does DNA-PAINT super-resolution at ~80 nm — turning a smartphone into a molecular sensor.
Stop Using Line Profiles to Measure Resolution — Use Decorrelation Analysis Instead
Line profiles give a biased, hand-picked estimate of microscope resolution. Decorrelation analysis extracts it from a whole image, parameter-free.
How Optics Became Europe's Most Strategic Industry — The Hidden Role of EUV Lithography in the AI Race
AI runs on chips, chips depend on EUV lithography, and EUV depends on European optics. A look at why ASML, Zeiss and TRUMPF sit at the core of the AI hardware stack.
The €100 Laser Level That Aligns My Microscopes
A hardware-store 3-axis laser level gives you an external reference to build optical setups against — the cheapest, most useful tool on my optical table.
Checking Laser Collimation in Seconds with a Shear Plate
A shear plate is a simple lateral shearing interferometer that checks laser collimation faster and more accurately than the naked eye — here's how.
Super-Resolution Without a Light Source: Imaging Powered by a Chemical Reaction
A new Nature method reaches ~100 nm resolution with no laser at all — light comes from a chemical reaction, enabling 41 hours of live-cell imaging.
Fourier Pixels: A Single Element That Senses and Generates Structured Light
ETH Zurich built a 10-micron plasmonic pixel that controls amplitude, phase, and polarization at once, working both as a light sensor and a light source.
SPAD Arrays: How Single-Photon Detectors Are Reshaping Microscopy and Imaging
Single-photon avalanche diode arrays are moving from confocal add-ons to widefield cameras and consumer sensors, changing how microscopy captures light.
The Revolution in Microscopy: 10 Trends Reshaping How We See the Invisible
A researcher's map of ten converging trends reshaping microscopy — from computational imaging and SPAD detectors to metasurfaces and quantum microscopy.
This new sensor by Eyeo Imaging increases colour sensitivity by 3x
Since 1976, every color camera sensor has discarded 70% of incoming light. Eyeo, an imec spin-off, replaces absorptive filters with nanophotonic waveguides that route photons instead.
BisQue: A Free, Open-Source ML Platform for 5D Microscopy Data
BisQue is a free, browser-based ML platform for storing, annotating, and analysing up to 5D microscopy data. Supports 100+ formats, Python, MATLAB, and ImageJ.
Are Lasers the Future of Indoor Wireless? A Chip-Scale VCSEL Array at 362 Gbps
A 1 mm² chip packed with 25 lasers just hit 362 Gbps using light instead of radio waves — at half the energy cost of Wi-Fi. Here's what it means.
Why NVIDIA Just Bet $4 Billion on Photonics
NVIDIA invested $4B in optical interconnects. Here's the physics behind why copper is failing AI infrastructure — and why photonics is the answer.
Plano-Convex Lens Orientation: How to Minimise Spherical Aberrations
Orienting a plano-convex lens incorrectly introduces spherical aberrations that blur your focus. Here's the rule every optical designer should follow.
Samsung's Pixel-Level Privacy Display: How OLED Angular Control Works
Samsung's Galaxy S26 Ultra uses a redesigned Black Matrix and dual-pixel architecture to restrict light emission angle per pixel — engineering privacy into the hardware itself.
Open Microscopy Resources: The Community-Built Map
The OpenMicroscopy GitHub repo by Hohlbein Lab curates 80+ free tools: hardware designs, control software, analysis pipelines, and open data repositories.