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Health & Science4h 0m ago

A team of physicists adapted the phase-contrast technique to cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM), which has about 10,000 times the magnification of light microscopy, to produce sharp images of molecules.

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UC Berkeley, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Who
physicists from UC Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), Holger Müller, Robert Glaeser, Jessie Zhang
What
A team of physicists adapted the phase-contrast technique to cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM), which has about 10,000 times the magnification of light microscopy, to produce sharp images of molecules.
When
Fri, 12 Jun 2026 00:30:00 GMT · 4h 0m ago
Where
UC Berkeley, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory ·
Why
This new technology, named "Theia," helps overcome the struggle of current cryo-EM systems to capture sharp images of small molecules.
The Frontline Impact

How this affects you

This advancement in microscopy allows for clearer and sharper images of molecules, including small and hard-to-capture ones like hemoglobin, which can accelerate drug discovery and improve understanding of proteins.

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2 events in this thread
  1. Health & Science2h 34m ago
    Physicists at the University of California, Berkeley, have developed a new laser phase plate (LPP) that dramatically enhances cryo-electron microscope images of small biological proteins.
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  2. Currently Reading4h 0m ago
    A team of physicists adapted the phase-contrast technique to cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM), which has about 10,000 times the magnification of light microscopy, to produce sharp images of molecules.

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