Malgorzata Lenarcik

A thick slice of tissue under a microscope looks like fogged glass: light scatters and details are lost. Usually, to see cells, you stain them or cut them into very thin slices. But there's a simpler way — make the slice itself transparent, as if you've wiped the glass clean.

Light in murky water behaves like a person in thick fog: every step is a collision, and the picture blurs. That's why a regular microscope can't see through skin or milk. Engineers found a workaround — look in the infrared range, where light collides less with particles.