Seeing Bacteria, Nanoprisms, And More With An Atomic Force Microscope
The article explores the practical applications of atomic force microscopy (AFM) in imaging biological and material samples. It details how a hobbyist used the technology to visualize bacteria and laser-etched diffraction gratings.
Why it matters
It demonstrates how advanced scientific instrumentation is becoming more accessible for detailed material analysis and research.
Unlike almost every other kind of microscope, atomic-force microscopes (AFMs) don’t use any kind of optical beam to image their subjects. Instead, they physically detect the subject’s surface with a tiny probe, repeating this thousands of times to build up a height map of the subject, sometimes with a resolution below a single nanometer. [Ben Krasnow] got to use an AFM in an investigation of one of his projects, and shared some unusual uses of it in his latest video .
The article is a technical overview of a scientific tool with no political or social bias.
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