The EMBO Journal aims to publish articles that shed light onto the mechanisms of biological processes. One of the best ways to learn about how a number of things work is to watch. In biology, this has not always been possible at the molecular level: limitations include accessibility (visualizing a biological process inside a living organism), resolution both in space (imaging technology of Angstrom resolution) and in time (visualizing dynamic, sometimes extremely rapid and transient events) and the lack of appropriate labelling molecules.

Recent developments in live imaging have pushed back the limits and the imaging revolution has struck all areas of molecular biology.

Because of our continued appreciation of the tremendous insight recent developments in live imaging provide into biological processes, we have decided to highlight recent advances in live imaging of biological structures and events in this special issue of the EMBO Journal. The emphasis is on imaging of biological membranes, of the dynamics of protein structure, of gene expression and of cell polarity, migration and of the signalling events associated with those processes. Four review articles discuss the technical advances themselves, as well as the biological insight they have generated and future perspectives. In addition, we present a collection of movies each with links to the source article, together with a striking dynamic model of ribosomes at work.

The content of this special issue on live imaging is accessible online free of charge for 1 month, and it will be accessible directly from the EMBO Journal homepage from then on. We hope you enjoy the movies and this special issue of the EMBO Journal.