Overcoming the limits of the microscope The resolution of a light microscope is limited. Physicists have long since worked out what these limits are and which parameters determine the spatial resolution. Many groups have nevertheless made numerous attempts to overcome these resolution limits. Rather than improving the power and quality of the microscope, Chen et al. instead expanded the biological specimens under study (see the Perspective by Dodt). They introduced a polymer gel into fixed cells and tissues and chemically induced swelling of the polymer by almost two orders of magnitude. They could then produce much higher-resolution images of their samples, which included the mouse hippocampus. Science , this issue p. 543 ; see also p. 474

Expansion microscopy