Three pioneers in the biomedical imaging field have won the 2014 Nobel prize in chemistry for work that led to nanomicroscopes that allow scientists to observe details insides living cells.

Eric Betzig at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and W.E. Moerner of Stanford University in the U.S. and Stefan Hell at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Germany will share the award for "the development of super-resolved fluorescence microscopy," the Nobel committee announced.

Prior to nanoscopy, optical microscopes using a light source with lenses were up against a hurdle inherent in the natural properties involved in optical viewing, where image resolution was dependent on the wavelength in the light source, and any object smaller than around 200 nanometers could not be brought into focus.

So how does a nano-microscope work?

Hell's research group developed a technique known as Stimulated Emission Depletion, in which a laser excites fluorescent molecules in a sample being observed while a second laser removes the fluorescence from all but a nanometer-sized region where the two lasers meet.

If the florescence was not quenched, it would create a fuzzy image in the area being observed.

Betzig and Moerner, in their work, laid the groundwork for different technique dubbed single fluorophore microscopy.

The demonstrated it was possible to perceive the light emitted by a single fluorescent molecule, which made it possible to create a high-resolution image of a sample by inserting small amounts of fluorescent proteins into it and exciting just a few fluorescent proteins at a time using a weak light pulse while taking a series of snapshots.

The snapshots could be combined to yield a high-resolution image of the sample.

The techniques of both Hell and of Betzig and Moerner allowed researchers to circumvent the inherent limitation that a light source's wavelength had placed on optical microscopy.

"Most of the processes in chemistry and biochemistry take place at length scales that are much smaller [than the wavelength of light]," said Sven Lidin of the chemistry Nobel prize committee in making the prize announcement. "The work of the laureates has made it possible to study molecular processes in real time."

Since their development, nano-microscopes have been a valuable tool for molecular biologists seeking to follow and understand the movement of disease markers or signaling molecules in individual living cells.

This has revolutionized the field, experts say.

"Betzig, Hell and Moerner's work to improve the resolution of traditional light microscopy has enabled scientists to bring their understanding of physiological processes into much sharper focus,' says Dominic Tildesley, president of the Royal Society of Chemistry, by "revealing whole new levels of understanding as to what is going on in the human body down to the nanoscale."