The conventional optical limitations of fluorescence microscopy have been defied, to achieve nanoscale resolution of individual vesicle organelles at the junctions of neuronal cells. Traditional optical microscopy cannot easily distinguish objects separated by less than about half the wavelength of visible light. For example, measurements of two fluorescent particles closer together than this 'diffraction barrier' generally produce one indistinct, bright blob. In practice, this equates to a maximum resolution corresponding to distances of around 200 nm for biological imaging using visible light.
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