Book excerpt: The only resource to systematically review current experimental methods, this handy reference enables researchers to select the best solution for their experimental problems. For each method covered, the book provides step-by-step protocols, illustrated by typical research applications. After an initial section on probing the lipid bilayer, the text moves on to discuss probing proteins -- including membrane proteins -- and nucleic acids. The first single publication to incorporate chemical markers, fluorescent probes and genetic tags allows a well-informed comparison of different solutions for the same problem in molecular analytics.