With the advances of immunohistochemistry in combination with confocal microscopy, airway sensory receptor end-organs can now be examined and evaluated objectively. Based on their 'neurochemical coding', morphology, location and origin, three sensory receptor end organs are currently morphologically well-characterised: smooth muscle-associated airway receptors (SMARs), neuroepithelial bodies (NEBs) and visceral pleura receptors (VPRs). The present information on the functional morphological and neurochemical characteristics of these sensory receptors, leads to important conclusions about...

Meticulous observation and faithful documentation of small-scale biological phenomena have laid the foundation for modern cell and developmental biology. Invaluable information has been garnered on the morphological rearrangements that accompany crucial decision points such as cell division, differentiation and embryonic development. Even today, interpretation and annotation of microscopy images offers an elegant and convincing way of proving scientific observations.

However, in an era of omics, life science is becoming evermore quantitative. This also holds true for...