# Ed Boyden on Reddit (u/Ed_Boyden)

Part of Scientists on Reddit, researched with Autumn (https://www.autumn.ai) from public sources. Updated 2026-11-07. Interactive version: https://www.autumn.ai/resources/scientists-on-reddit/ed-boyden

Ed Boyden: Neuroscientist at MIT, invented expansion microscopy.

- Reddit account: [u/Ed_Boyden](https://www.reddit.com/user/Ed_Boyden/) (AMA only)
- How we know it's theirs: [The 2016 r/askscience AMA, posted from this account](https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/4ak060/)
- Where they post, in the records we retrieved: r/askscience (20)
- Known activity in the posts we found: 2016 to 2016
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Boyden

## Moments

### u/Ed_Boyden in r/askscience, Mar 15, 2016 · Behind the scenes

Replying to a redditor:

> What are the advantages of your "Expansion Microscopy" technique over more conventional super-resolution imaging techniques? I assume it requires more up-front preparation of the specimen but results in much faster image acquisition? Can an optical clearing strategy such as…

> Expansion microscopy (http://expansionmicroscopy.org/) physically makes biological specimens bigger.  It does require up front preparation, to form the polymers and make the specimens swell.  But then, you can image on inexpensive, conventional microscopy hardware.  So the latter parts of the imaging are fast.  Indeed, you could imagine that someday expanding a specimen and then taking pictures on cheap optics (e.g., like the kind on cell phones) might be possible.  As for clearing: one nice side effect of expansion microscopy is that the tissue becomes quite clear, because we are moving the molecules away from each other and that reduces their scattering of light.

(Excerpt.)
Full thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/4ak060/comment/d111df1/ · 10 points as of Nov 7, 2026