Reality → Scale → Micro world → Microscopy
The inventor of the phase contrast microscope (Zernike) was awarded the 1953 Nobel Prize in Physics.
The 2014 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to three scientists for the development of three different methods of fluorescence microscopy: Stimulated Emission Depletion (STED) microscopy; single molecule microscopy; and Photo Activated Localization Microscopy (PALM).
Samples have to be viewed in vacuum. Biological specimens are dead and require extensive preparation for stabilization.
Three physicists/engineers (working at Siemens and at IBM Zürich) were awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physics for developing the electron microscope and the scanning tunnel microscope (see also Binnig interview).