Atomic Force Microscopy of Biomaterials, Mica, and the Origins of Life

Abstract

Atomic force microscopy (AFM) began as an art as well as a science, and in many ways it continues to be an art and a science. Despite the existence of new, better, faster, bigger (or smaller!) atomic force microscopes (AFMs), some of the of the fundamental challenges remain—probe tips, sample dirt, and moving beyond leading-edge results obtained with one biological system to obtain leading-edge results with a related system.