We survey the history of resolution enhancement techniques
in microscopy and their impact on current research in biomedicine. Often
these techniques are labeled superresolution, or enhanced resolution
microscopy, or light-optical nanoscopy. First, we introduce the development
of diffraction theory in its relation to enhanced resolution; then we
explore the foundations of resolution as expounded by the astronomers
and the physicists and describe the conditions for which they apply.
Then we elucidate Ernst Abbe’s theory of optical formation in the microscope,
and its experimental verification and dissemination to the
world wide microscope communities. Second, we describe and compare
the early techniques that can enhance the resolution of the microscope.
Third, we present the historical development of various techniques that
substantially enhance the optical resolution of the light microscope.
These enhanced resolution techniques in their modern form constitute
an active area of research with seminal applications in biology and
medicine. Our historical survey of the field of resolution enhancement
uncovers many examples of reinvention, rediscovery, and independent
invention and development of similar proposals, concepts, techniques,
and instruments. Attribution of credit is therefore confounded by the
fact that for understandable reasons authors stress the achievements
from their own research groups and sometimes obfuscate their contributions
and the prior art of others. In some cases, attribution of credit
is also made more complex by the fact that long term developments are
difficult to allocate to a specific individual because of the many mutual
connections often existing between sometimes fiercely competing, sometimes
strongly collaborating groups. Since applications in biology and
medicine have been a major driving force in the development of resolution
enhancing approaches, we focus on the contribution of enhanced
resolution to these fields. |
