Since that time, the project has expanded rapidly, now including 18 graduate students in the Computer Science department and at least 6 Physics graduate students. We are together working with Dorothy Erie's group at the UNC department of Chemistry and with Jude Samulski's group in Gene Therapy , as well as working on carbon nano-tubes and polymers. This software provided the center tracing for the data analysis done on carbon nanotubes described in our Nature article and the Tobacco-Mosaic Virus work described in our Biophysical Journal article. The team works closely with users in biology, solid-state physics, and gene therapy to develop techniques and displays most useful to solving problems in their fields. Biologists interested in coming to use our facility in its capacity as an NIH National Research Resource should check out our visitor web page .
Specular highlights bring out features in the data that are missed in the grayscale image.
SPMs can modify the surface using either voltage pulses or by physically pressing the tip into the surface. This modification is normally done under program control, with experiments consisting of scanning the surface before and after a change. Normally, there is no feedback during the modification event. The nM uses a force-feedback probe to allow the user to directly control tip motion during modification and feel the changes as they are occuring. This provides much finer control over modification and enables new and fruitful types of experiments.