A comprehensive volume that brings together authoritative overviews of single molecule science techniques from a biological perspective.

The observation and manipulation of individual molecules is one of the most exciting developments in modern molecular science. Single Molecule Science: Physical Principles and Models provides an introduction to the mathematical tools and physical theories needed to understand, explain, and model single-molecule observations. This book explains the

A comprehensive volume that brings together authoritative overviews of single molecule science techniques from a biological perspective.

Indispensable textbook for undergraduate students in the physical and life sciences, unravelling the inner workings of the cell.

This is the first book solely devoted to single-molecule biochemistry and molecular biology. Authors were selected on the basis of their contribution to this new and exciting field, and were asked to focus more on the biological problems that can be approached using single-molecule techniques rather than on the techniques per se. It is thought that such techniques will eventually dominate the physical characterization of biologically important macromolecules.

The essential concepts used throughout this book are explained in the appendices and the text does not assume any background beyond undergraduate chemistry, physics, and calculus. Every effort has been made to keep the presentation self-contained and derive results starting from a limited set of fundamentals, such as several simple models of molecular dynamics and the laws of probability. The result is a book that develops essential concepts in a simple yet rigorous way and in a manner that is accessible to a broad audience.This book explains the physical principles underlying the major classes of single-molecule experiments such as fluorescence measurements, force-probe spectroscopy, and nanopore experiments. It provides the framework needed to understand single-molecule phenomena by introducing all the relevant mathematical and physical concepts, and then discussing various approaches to the problem of interpreting single molecule data.

Geared towards research scientists in structural and molecular biology, biochemistry, and biophysics, this manual will be useful to all who are interested in observing, manipulating and elucidating the molecular mechanisms and discrete properties of macromolecules.

Single-molecule studies constitute a distinguishable category of focused - search in nanoscience and nanotechnology. This book is dedicated to the - troduction of recent advances on single-molecule studies. It will be illustrated that studying single molecules is both intellectually and technologically ch- lenging, and also o?ers vast potential in opening up new scienti?c frontiers. We wish to present the readers with several di?erent techniques for studying single molecules, such as electron-tunneling methods, interaction-force m- surement techniques, optical spectroscopy, plus a number of directions where further progress could be pursued. We hope the work may assist the readers, especially graduate students and those who wish to explore single molecules, to become familiarized with the pace of the progress in this ?eld and the relevant primary techniques. Due to limitation of space, we are not able to elaborate on the technical details of all of the experimental methods that are vital in single molecule studies, so introductions to only selected experimental methods are touched in the context. Since the technical details and theoretical analysis of these techniqueshavealreadybeenthoroughlycoveredinmanyliteratures,weonly provide introductions to the basic principles of the detection techniques here, and focus on their experimental achievements in the area of single-molecule studies. These techniques have proven to be highly e?ective when indep- dently used. The combinationof those techniques could lead to further - vances in the detection capabilities.

The topics range from single molecule experiments in quantum optics and solid-state physics to analogous investigations in physical chemistry and biophysics.

In Single Molecule Studies of Proteins, expert researchers discuss the successful application of single-molecule techniques to a wide range of biological events, such as the imaging and mapping of cell surface receptors, the analysis of the unfolding and folding pathways of single proteins, the analysis interaction forces between biomolecules, the study of enzyme catalysis or the visualization of molecular motors in action. The chapters are aimed at established investigators and post-doctoral researchers in the life sciences wanting to pursue research in the various areas in which single-molecule approaches are important; this volume also remains accessible to advanced graduate students seeking similar research goals.