Over the last ten years, a number of new approaches have emerged that have made it possible for scientists to mechanically manipulate individual molecules. These methods are proving themselves quite powerful to investigate the molecular mechanisms underlying many dynamic biochemical processes. Because molecules are studied one at a time, single molecule manipulation techniques avoid the ensemble average characteristic of bulk studies. This feature is particularly useful to follow complex dynamic processes in time where the presence of multiple species in solution blurs the dynamical description of the system. Moreover, many processes in the cell are known to be mechanical in nature and mechanical force is one of the "products" of the reaction. It follows that forces applied to the molecules undergoing these processes can be used to alter the extent and in some cases even the fate of the reactions, thus helping to reveal the molecular mechanisms by which force is generated in them. In this presentation, I will illustrate the use of optical tweezers with three different examples taken from my own research.
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