Entitled “MINFLUX Nanoscopy: Superresolution Post Nobel”, this year’s lecture explored stimulated emission depletion microscopy (STED), an optical imaging technique developed by Professor Hell which led to a joint awarding of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2014. In addition to photo-activated localization microscopy (PALM) and stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy (STORM) – two other techniques developed in the 2000s by Eric Betzig and William E. Moerner – STED gained recognition "for the development of super-resolved fluorescence microscopy" in its ability to surpass the maximum achievable resolution of optical imaging techniques of the previous century.

Professor Hell’s also discussed his group’s new technique “MINFLUX”, a new optical imaging techniques that can beat the resolution of STED by a factor of 10.

King’s Department of Physics launched the Wheatstone Lectures in 2013 as a scientific public lecture series.

Sir Charles Wheatstone FRS (1802-75) was Professor of Experimental Philosophy at King's, and the first Professor in the Department from 1834 until his death in 1875. Polymath and self-taught, Wheatstone was a prolific inventor whose legacy includes the symphonium, the stereoscope, the Wheatstone Bridge and the development of the electric telegraph which revolutionised communications in the nineteenth century.