The Scientist’s choice of major improvements in imaging, optogenetics, single-cell analyses, and CRISPR

Life-science imaging broke barriers this year, as scientists built upon microscopy approaches to peer ever deeper into living tissues. In October, Purdue University’s Ji-Xin Cheng and colleagues reported they had greatly increased the speed of collecting images—from minutes to seconds—using in vivo vibrational spectroscopic imaging, a technique that obviates the need for fluorescence.