Following the the topical theme of “xx of the Year”, Nature Methods has announced its Method of the Year 2008: Super-Resolution Microscopy.

This collective name covers basically 3 techniques: STED, coming from the pioneering work of Stefan Hell, and PALM and STORM, which came along in 2007. These techniques have broken the theoretical resolution limit imposed by the wavelength of light and allowed to observe individual molecules in biological samples. While the original developments pre-date 2008, this year saw an explosion of refinements and improvements, with which the technology is now poised to revolutionize cell biology.

There is a series of articles describing these developments in the Nature Methods special feature, including a Primer which I find very useful and a 5-min video, which will give you the quick story. (All the special content is free.)

Along the same “looking back to 2008” theme, Nature named Lyn Evans its Newsmaker of the Year. The articles celebrating Lyn Evan’s achievements at the helm of the LHC highlight the importance of “machine makers” in science—something that, to some extent, could also be said of the developers of Super-Resolution Microscopy.

And Science ’s Breakthrough of the Year goes to Cell Reprogramming. A method too… so methods have once again done quite well!