I recommend Birk’s practical monograph for users of homemade or commercial superresolution microscopes.
What differentiates this critical and comprehensive book from the recent genre of multiauthored volumes is Birk’s cogent analysis on the detrimental effects on live cells, embyros and organisms of probes and high light intensities common to both nonlinear stimulated-emission depletion (STED) microscopy and nonlinear structured-illumination microscopy (SIM). This lucid text contains protocols and cautions, such as signal-to-noise ratios, aberrations and corrections, drift and vibration artifacts, and probe artifacts, and is augmented with well designed figures that include extensive experimental data. Another unique feature of the book is the physics of the vortex phase plate to form an annulus with a zero intensity at the center.
The book, which also includes key references and an index, develops the optics, the photophysics of fluorescent probes, the instrumentation, and the software needed for understanding the optimal use of far-field superresolution microscopes for a variety of biological applications.
Review by Barry R. Masters, Fellow of AAAS, OSA and SPIE.
The opinions expressed in the book review section are those of the reviewer and do not necessarily reflect those of OPN or OSA.