Ernst Ruska was born on December 25, 1906 in Heidelberg, Germany. He is best know for inventing the electron microscope in 1931, and won the nobel prize for his invention in 1986. He died in 1988. He spent most of his life studying electrons and taught at a technical college in Berlin.

The electron microscope (pictured above) works by manipulating electrons instead of using light. The electron's lower wavelength makes it possible to get a better resolution a thousand times better than a light microscope. One major drawback to this type of microscope is that the specimen must be viewed in a vacuum. Air would scatter the electrons causing a distorted image. No living specimen could be viewed.

This is an image of a breast cancer cell under an electron microscope.