In a transparent medium, lensbased optical microscopy could focus a coherent light beam (e.g., laser) into a tiny spot, whose dimension is comparable to the size of the wavelength of the light. The diameter of the smallest beam waist is about half the size of the wavelength, which is referred to as the diffraction limit. Thus, for visible light, the theoretical diffraction limit is between 200 and 400 nm, much smaller than the size of a single cell (Figure 1A). However, in biological tissues that significantly scatter and absorb visible light, the spatial resolution could be compromised. In multicellular organisms, light absorption limits the penetration depth. The scattering of the light by the opaque biological tissues would expand the volume of light stimulation and reduce the spatial resolution.