From the Philosopher's Stone to the Researcher's Dream: Bringing ease-of-use to fluorescence and confocal microscopy

Although naturally occurring luminescence has been observed for many centuries, the first study on it was not completed until the golden age of alchemy by Vincenzo Casciarolo, who discovered ‘Bolognian Phosphorus’ often referred to as ‘Bolgnian Stone’ or ‘Litheophosphorus’1. Much was debated and written on this supposed philosopher's stone, but the physicochemical basis of its absorption and emission of light remained poorly illuminated. Through seminal work by many researchers, including Sir George Stokes2, our knowledge of such properties has clearly increased, and we now have a deeper understanding of the specific excitation and emission wavelengths of an enormous number of different fluorescent molecules. As a result, fluorescence (and to a lesser extent luminescence) is used across many life science research protocols to track and ana lyse molecules within many different paradigms. Although a number of molecules possess intrinsic fluorescence (or even luminescence), the majority of applications involve the use of exogenous fluorescence dyes or recombinant proteins to tag a molecule of interest. Arguably, the investiga tive tool that has benefitted the most from the application of this fluorescence knowledge, and in turn contributed greatly to the advancement of science, is microscopy3. But fluorescence micro scopy and its derivations are far from simple and involve a large amount of user knowledge. A new concept, however, is set to provide advanced microscopy that bypasses the need for indepth optical knowhow – a researcher's dream.