That is the claim of Prof Werner Kuehlbrandt, a director at the Max-Planck-Institute for Biophysics, in Frankfurt, Germany, speaking on the first main day of Microscopy New Zealand's latest annual conference, in Dunedin.
New camera technology had helped spark a ''resolution revolution'', which ''enables us to do things we could only dream about two years ago,'' he said.
A ''new era in molecular biology'' had begun in the use of electron cryo-microscopy for ''determining the structure of protein complexes at high resolution''.
In ''electron cryo-microscopy'' tiny samples are rapidly frozen to minus 180degC.
New techniques were revealing key details in small biological structures, he said.
Ageing-related neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's, affected mitochondria (cells' powerhouses) and researchers could see ''amazing changes'' in the structure of these organelles in ageing creatures.
Precise knowledge of the structure of very large molecules was ''essential for understanding how they function'', he said.
Clarifying such structures in tiny detail was crucial ''for the development of novel antibiotics and drugs''.
