Nanoparticles Unveil the World of Super-Small Things.

Physicists at The Australian National University are using nanoparticles to create innovative light sources that will allow us to “peel back the curtain” into the world of extremely tiny objects. The ANU technology uses carefully engineered nanoparticles to increase the frequency of light that cameras and other technologies see by up to seven times. The technology, which requires only a single nanoparticle to work, could be implemented into microscopes to help scientists zoom into the world of super small things at 10 times the resolution of conventional microscopes. This would enable researchers to study objects that would otherwise be too small to see, such as the inner structures of cells and individual viruses.