Cryo-electron microscopy of biological nanostructures

Abstract

A wry joke states that you can see a lot just by looking. But in biology, to "just look at the thing!" - as Richard Feynman put it - really is a powerful method for understanding how cells and molecules work. Scientific investigation in biology often involves testing hypotheses regarding which subcellular structures are responsible for a process, and there is hardly a better way to call a particular idea into question than to just see whether such a proposed structure even exists. At the same time, the observation of a previously unsuspected structure immediately calls for formulating hypotheses as to why such a structure is there and how it can work. Visual observation, arguably one of the most powerful tools in biological research, is thus used to achieve both goals of the scientific method: It can rule out previously reasonable hypotheses, and it can generate empirical data that lead to the formulation of new, testable hypotheses. © 2008 American Institute of Physics.