Color electron micrograph of an endosome, a cell organelle.
Credit: Ranjan Ramachandra, UCSD
The colors were not 'created' by techniques in photographic filtration but rather they're real and were activated by various chemical techniques.
As his Christmas gift to himself each year, the late biochemist Roger Tsien treated himself to two weeks of uninterrupted research in his lab. This image is a product of those annual sojourns. While it may look like a pine wreath dotted with crimson berries, it is in fact one of the world's first color electron micrographs -- and the method used to create it may dramatically advance cell imaging.
Electron microscopy (EM) is a time-honored technique for visualizing cell structures that uses beams of accelerated electrons to magnify objects up to 10 million times their actual size. Standard EM images are in grayscale and any color is added in with computer graphics programs after the image is made. With their new technique, Tsien, who received a Nobel Prize for his development of green fluorescent protein into a tool for visualizing details in living cells using light microscopes, and his colleagues found a way to incorporate color labeling directly into EM.
- Science Daily
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