A research team led by a scientist from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory has demonstrated for the first time that the magnetic fields of bacterial cells and magnetic nano-objects in liquid can be studied at high resolution using electron microscopy. This proof-of-principle capability allows first-hand observation of liquid environment phenomena, and has the potential to vastly increase knowledge in a number of scientific fields, including many areas of physics, nanotechnology, biofuels conversion, biomedical engineering, catalysis, batteries and pharmacology.