In their study, published April 17 in Nature Structural & Molecular Biology , the researchers used a relatively new measurement technique called high-speed atomic-force microscopy (HS-AFM), which employs an extremely sensitive probe to scan across molecules' surfaces, essentially feeling their structures. As a key innovation, the scientists found a method to isolate their target molecule, a single protein , thus avoiding effects from protein-to-protein interactions and enabling faster and more p...