Force spectroscopy is a dynamic analytical technique that allows the study of the mechanical properties of single polymer molecules or proteins, or individual chemical bonds. It is performed by pulling on the system under scrutiny with controlled forces. As a single-molecule technique, as opposed to typical ensemble spectroscopies, it allows a researcher to determine properties of the particular molecule under study. In particular, rare events such as conformational change, which are masked in an ensemble, may be observed.
The name "force spectroscopy", although widely used in the scientific community, is somewhat misleading, because there is no true matter-radiation interaction. Force spectroscopy measures the behavior of a molecule under stretching or torsional mechanical force. In this way a great deal has been learned in recent years about the mechanochemical coupling in the enzymes responsible for muscle contraction, transport in the cell, energy generation (F1-ATPase), DNA replication and transcription (polymerases), DNA unknotting and unwinding (topoisomerases and helicases), and so on.
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“A petty bureaucrat always watches his superior’s countenance, just as a boatman trims his sails according to the force of the wind.”
—Chinese proverb.