4 ms·

But it is used a lot in biophysics!

• dekhn 6y ago
  It is? I mean, that was my PhD, but I don't recall anybody ever using AFM for biology. Huh, apparently now they do.
  • infinite8s 6y ago
    Yeah lots of single molecule studies (strength of an actin filament, how much force needed to 'unfold' various proteins, etc). And this was 20 years ago when I was in grad school. Haven't kept up with the state of the art today.
    • dekhn 6y ago
      interesting. all the people doing that in my day (also 20 years ago) used fluorescent microscopes (Ron Vale) with labelled protein. I can't see how you could unfold a protein using AFM, since it's in vacuum state, although I totally understand how optical tweezers would be fine to do this in solution.
      • nynx 6y ago
        AFMs work in both air and fluid environments.