The Olympus BioScapes Digital Imaging Competition® recognizes outstanding images of life science specimens captured through light microscopes, using any magnification, any illumination technique and any brand of equipment.

A broad range of fluorescent protein genetic variants have been developed over the past several years that feature fluorescence emission spectral profiles spanning almost the entire visible light spectrum.

Light is a phenomenon that is explained with a model based on rays and wavefronts. The Olympus Microscopy Resource Center Microscopy Primer explores many of the aspects of visible light starting with an introduction to electromagnetic radiation.

Total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy (TIRFM) is an elegant optical technique utilized to observe single molecule fluorescence at surfaces and interfaces and is commonly employed to investigate the interaction of molecules with surfaces.

The technique of fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET), when applied to optical microscopy, permits determination of the approach between two molecules within several nanometers, a distance sufficiently close for molecular interactions to occur.

Confocal microscopy offers several advantages over conventional widefield optical microscopy, including the ability to control depth of field and the capability to collect serial optical sections from thick specimens.

The microscope must accomplish three main tasks: produce a magnified image of the specimen, separate the details in the image, and render the details visible to the human eye or camera.