The atomic force microscope (AFM) has been used in many ways to extract information from biologic specimens. Now Gerry Leatherman, Edgar Durantini, Devens Gust, Tom Moore, Anna Moore, Simon Stone, Ziniu Zhou, Peter Rez, YangZhang Liu, and Stuart Lindsay have used conduction atomic force microscopy (CAFM) to demonstrate that a molecule of carotene can function as a molecular wire.

Leatherman et al., synthesized carotene and then examined the molecules with the scanning tunneling microscope (STM), They could image spots that averaged 2 nm in diameter, although the size of the spots varied widely due to the geometry of the probe tip. Interestingly, the number of spots increased with the concentration of carotene, but the average size of the spots did not change. This made it clear that they were able to image carotene molecules with the STM, and that the carotene did not form large aggregates.