the field of cell biology emerged in the 1950s with the ability to observe  at nanometer resolution  cellular structures and their interconnections through the electron microscope . however , a limitation of this technology is the small field of view captured in a single image  only on the scale of a few microns square . although these high - magnification images provide impressive resolution of the selected area of the cell , they are often difficult to put into the broader biological context of a cell or tissue . on the other hand , overview images taken at a lower magnification help to present the big picture but lack cellular detail . recent technological developments have enabled the integration of imaging and computational tools to allow  virtual nanoscopy ,  the visualization of specimens at nanometer resolution but millimeter scale , a scale unheard of just a few years ago . these approaches allow the seamless zooming in and out  from subcellular- to tissue- or even organism - level views  without loss of resolution ( fig . 2012 ) describe automated image acquisition and stitching technology using a standard laboratory transmission electron microscopy platform to generate large - scale electron microscopy datasets . by accurately stitching together more than 26,000 individual images at nanometer resolution , they generated virtual slides up to 1.5 mm ( 921,600 pixels )  0.6 mm ( 380,928 pixels ) for a total of 281 gigapixels ( http://jcb-dataviewer.rupress.org/jcb/browse/5553 ) . as a proof of principle , they applied this method to generate a map of the vast majority of a 5-day post - fertilization zebrafish embryo at 1.6-nm resolution per pixel ( the equivalent of 16 million dpi ) . ( 2012 ) does not require a customized imaging platform , and it is applicable to a broad range of transmission electron microscopy samples , including samples that have been embedded in resin or cryo - vitrified and that are either unstained or have been immunolabeled using chemical or immunogold techniques . the resulting large - scale images allow the interrogation of morphological features over scales ranging from subcellular organelles and single cells to whole tissues to nearly an entire embryo . the ability to integrate information across cells and tissues in an unbiased manner provides an exceptional opportunity for discovery  from the cell biological to the organismal level . overlapping images at progressively higher magnification from a 281-gigapixel composite image of a 5-day post - fertilization zebrafish embryo reveal subcellular features within single - cell , tissue , and organismal contexts ( image data  faas et al . , 2012 ) . red boxes indicate the region selected for each successive magnification step ( indicated as percent magnification ) . conventional venues such as supplemental materials sections are not sufficient for publishing these large - scale image maps , however . to make publication of these data possible , jcb announces a major enhancement to the jcb dataviewer to host virtual nanoscopy data at the gigapixel scale . the jcb dataviewer was launched in 2008 to promote sharing of original data associated with jcb publications ( hill , 2008 ) . since then we have expanded the dataviewer to promote data analysis ( decathelineau et al . , 2010 ) and hosting of entire high - content , image - based screens ( williams and misteli , 2011 ) . now , if you are ready to go big with your imaging , the jcb dataviewer is ready to help you share your data with the cell biology community . despite ever - changing cell biological methods , imaging remains one of the key tools in our field . jcb remains committed to developing cutting - edge tools for the presentation of the data that drive progress in the field of cell biology . wherever the field of cell biology goes , jcb will continue to lead the way .
one of the major forces driving the birth of the field of cell biology was the application of electron microscopy to cells . today , virtual nanoscopy has brought electron microscopy and the cell biology community to a new frontier in biological imaging and cell biological inquiry . 
 the journal of cell biology is pleased to announce that the jcb dataviewer is  going big  to host electron microscopy data at a whole new scale .