J. Sumaya-Martinez

Building ultrasensitive sensors for light measurements and spectroscopy starts with tiny chambers where light ricochets like an echo in a canyon. Previously, engineers chased the quality factor — the duration of this echo: the longer it rings, the more noticeable the slightest changes.

A fluorescence microscope is like a photographer shooting in the dark: the more frames, the better the view, but each frame costs photons. In a living cell, the supply is limited, otherwise the light would simply kill the sample. So scientists proposed not to increase the number of photons, but to choose more wisely when to catch them.