Fig. 1. Schematic of a bacterial cell attached to a glass substrate for microscopic analysis in solution. Inverted optic microscopy and complementary fluorescence microscopy (via objective below) can be used to find and inspect cells at low resolution. For AFM analysis, the bacterial surface is traced by a sharp needle on a flexible cantilever. The bending of the cantilever is a measure of the force between the surface and the AFM probe, this is detected via the deflection of a laser beam.