For hundreds of years, images of cells have come from isolated specimens sitting on glass slides, removed from their intricate and subtle cellular universes within living organisms. Now, using a new imaging technique described in Science on Thursday, living cells can be filmed in high-resolution and 3-D, producing stunning videos of their fully animated worlds.

“Studying the cell on a coverslip is like watching a lion in the zoo—you’re not exactly seeing their native behaviors,” says physicist Eric Betzig. Using the new microscope “is like watching the lion chase an antelope on the savanna. You’re finally seeing the true nature of cells.”

Betzig, who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2014, led a team from the