Cryo-electron microscopy

Cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) is a way of taking super cool pictures of super tiny things, like the inside of cells, proteins, and viruses.

When scientists want to see what these tiny things look like, they need to use special microscopes that can make the things appear really big, like they're many times their actual size. But to make really clear and detailed pictures, they need to use really powerful microscopes, like electron microscopes.

However, when the electron microscope takes pictures of these tiny things, it can actually damage them, like shining too bright of a light can damage our own eyes. So to keep the tiny things safe, scientists use a technique called "cryo-" which means cold.

They start by freezing the tiny things to very very low temperatures, even lower than the temperature of dry ice! This way, the tiny things are frozen in their natural state and can't move around or get damaged.

Then they use the electron microscope to take many many pictures of the frozen tiny thing from many different angles, like taking lots of photos of a person's face from different sides.

Finally, they use computers to combine all the pictures to make a super detailed 3D image of the tiny thing! It's like how you can make a 3D puzzle by putting many small pieces together, but the scientists use the pictures they took instead of puzzle pieces.

This super detailed image helps scientists learn more about how cells, proteins, and viruses work and can even help them develop new drugs to treat diseases!