The STEM has the capability to acquire spatial and chemical information from almost all scattered electrons. Dedicated STEMs do not have any post-specimen lenses but many different detectors instead. The STEM axial bright field mode is quite insensitive to multiple scattering occurring while imaging thick samples such as vitrified whole cells. The blur of small gold sphere has been simulated by Monte Carlo calculations. Direct electron detectors record the rich information of microdiffraction patterns from every irradiated spot while the STEM beam raster-scans over the sample. • The STEM produces distinct images of negatively stained macromolecules (GroEL-ES, top left; antibodies, bottom left). • The STEM produces mass maps of biomolecular assemblies (ClyA; center). • The STEM simultaneously acquires bright (top right) and dark field electron tomograms (bottom right) of thick vitrified samples, allowing heavier elements like phosphorus or calcium to be discriminated from lighter elements like carbon.