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I’m at the Frontiers in Biophysics (first annual) retreat at Loon Lake (yes, it is that beautiful, even in mildly chilly October weather), about two hours outside of Vancouver.
A good portion of the retreat is made up of people doing single molecule measurements, either with scanning probe microscopes (AFM, STM) or optical and magnetic tweezers. These measurements have rightly become quite popular in recent years, particularly since the techniques themselves are still quite new.
After a number of talks on single molecule experiments, a speaker not working on single molecules said, after explaining his more ‘bulk’ style of measurement:
Looking at an ensemble measurement… you know, retro biophysics.
We all burst out laughing, since single-molecule work certainly has come to dominate biophysics research. I’ll give a more complete recap of the retreat when I’m home tomorrow night!
Biocurious is written by Andre Brown and Philip Johnson, since 2005. Content of the weblog is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.
