ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Optical sectioning

Imagine you have a cake, but instead of slicing it normally, you slice it in a way that allows you to only see one layer at a time. That's kind of like optical sectioning!

In science, when we want to see inside of something, like a cell or a piece of tissue, we use a microscope. But sometimes, the things we want to see are tricky because they are in 3D - they have height, width, and depth. Optical sectioning is a way to look at these things in 3D, but by only seeing one layer at a time so it's easier to understand.

To do this, we use a special type of microscope that takes pictures of one layer of an object at a time. But we don't just take any ordinary photo. We make it so that only the things we want to see in that one layer are in focus, and everything else is blurry. This helps us focus on just one part of the object we want to look at, like a single layer of a cake.

We can take multiple photos like this, each one showing a different layer of the object. Then we combine all of the photos together and we have a 3D image of the object that we can look at from any angle. This helps scientists better understand how the different layers fit together to create the whole object.

Overall, optical sectioning is a way of looking at something in 3D by focusing on one layer at a time. It helps scientists better see and understand the things they are studying, like cells and tissues.