PNNL

Abstract

Richard Feynman’s landmark lecture from 1959 titled BThere’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom: An Invitation to Enter a New Field of Physics^ is widely known for encouraging research into the field we now refer to as nanotechnology. In that same lecture, he also presciently recognized that many fundamental questions in biology could be answered through miniaturization, particularly using microscopy, noting that many knowledge gaps could be readily addressed if we could Bjust look at the thing!^ Indeed, increasing the resolution with which biological systems are investigated, whether it be through cryoelectron microscopy, flow cytometry, or singlecell RNA-Seq, has revolutionized many aspects of biological inquiry. In this themed topical collection of Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry, we emphasize that there is still Bplenty of room at the bottom^ when it comes to biochemical analysis. Great strides have been made in biology and medicine as chemical measurements that have historically been applied to bulk tissues are extended to the scale at which the biology is occurring, which is often at the cellular or subcellular level.