(NIST: Gaithersburg, MD) -- Researchers are characterizing a new technique as a neat solution to the “needle in a haystack” problem of nanoscale microscopy, but it’s more like using a flashlight to find a coffee table in the dark instead of walking around until you fall over it. In a recently published paper in Optics Express (Vol. 18, No. 23. Nov. 8, 2010) titled “Label-Free Optical Imaging of Membrane Patches for Atomic Force Microscopy,” authors A. B. Churnside, G. M. King, and T. T. Perkins describe how they found tiny assemblies of biomolecules for subsequent detailed imaging by combining precision laser optics with atomic force microscopy. The scientists are associated with JILA, a joint venture of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Colorado.

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