From balloons to rubber bands, things always break faster when stretched. Or

Chemists at the University of Illinois have created a simple and inexpensive molecular technique that replaces an expensive atomic force microscope for studying what happens to small molecules when they are stretched or compressed.

University of Illinois scientists say they have created a simple technique for studying what happens to small molecules when they are stretched or compressed. The researchers said with stiff stilbene as a molecular force probe to generate well-defined forces on various molecules, atom by atom, they can observe what is widely otherwise observed only by using expensive atomic force microscopes. By pulling on different pairs of atoms, we can explore what happens when we stretch a molecule in different ways, chemistry Professor Roman Boulatov said in a statement.