Force spectroscopy measurement of rupture forces of bound molecules becomes an important physicochemical tool in characterizing intermolecular interactions. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) measurements are among the most common approaches in implementation of this technique. Kinetic information about the molecular bond under study is usually extracted assuming that the detected rupture force come...

*Correspondence: Agust Gudmundsson, Department of Earth Sciences, Royal Holloway University of London, Queen’s Building, Egham TW20 0EX, UK e-mail: rock.fractures@ googlemail.com The sizes of earthquakes are measured using well-defined, measurable quantities such as seismic moment and released or transformed elastic energy. No similar measures exist for the sizes of volcanic eruptions, making i...

In single-molecule force spectroscopy, individual molecules and complexes are often stretched by pulling devices via intervening molecular handles. Accurate interpretation of measurements from such experiments in terms of the underlying energy landscape, defined by activation barriers and intrinsic rates of transition, relies on our understanding, and proper theoretical treatment, of the effect...

Measuring simultaneously the force and the conductance during the formation and rupture of an atomic-sized gold contact at room temperature, we observe that deformation occurs as a sequence of structural transformations involving elastic and yielding stages and that force and conductance before rupture have definite values which are likely to correspond to a single atom contact. We measure the ...

The detection probability of rupture events in AFM force spectroscopy measurements presents a viable alternative to standard methods for extracting kinetic parameters of dissociation. The detection probability has a maximum as a function of the probe velocity where (1) the probability to form a molecular bond is independent of the probe velocity and (2) the detection of rupture events is limite...

Simultaneous bilateral quadriceps tendon rupture is a rare injury. We report the case of bilateral quadriceps tendon rupture sustained with minimal force while refereeing a football game. The injury was suspected to be associated with statin use as the patient had no other identifiable risk factors. The diagnosis was confirmed using bedside ultrasound.