Former vice president Al Gore, second from left, recently visited the lab of Caltech professor of applied physics and physics Steve Quake, center. The two discuss data from the FANSOM (fluorescence apertureless near-field scanning microscope) with lab members Ziyang Ma (left) and Larry Wade (right), and sponsor Bruce Burrows. Designed in Quake’s lab, the instrument is the world’s highest-resolution optical microscope. Not pictured is lab member Jordan Gerton, who also works on the project.