STM AND AFM OF BIO ORGANIC MOLECULES AND STRUCTURES/

Applications of scanning tunneling and atomic force microscopes in bio /organic researches are reviewed with a special emphasis on the types of researches that are expected to contribute to the creation of a new field of ''single molecule biochemistry'' in the near future. The rev iewed articles within the scope as stated above actually include a fai rly broad spectrum of researches. It is, therefore, a hope of the auth or that this review will be useful to those who are considering biolog ical applications of the probe microscopy techniques but are not quite familiar with the types of experiments that have been done in the pas t. In the section on scanning tunneling microscopy, identification of chemically distinct functional groups by the difference in their tunne ling properties will be discussed as a main focus because it is fundam ental for biochemists to identify molecules by their shapes and proper ties. In the section on atomic force microscopy, recent progresses in the imaging techniques of proteins and DNAs are closely reviewed, and rapidly advancing technologies of single molecule measurements and man ipulation of nanometer sized structures are given extensive coverage b ecause the author considers that such new applications are extremely p romising to open an entirely new field in biological sciences.