Atomic force microscopy (AFM) offers a method for label-free imaging of nanoscale biomolecular dynamics to solve biological questions that cannot be addressed via other bioimaging methods including fluorescence and scanning electron microscopy. Since such imaging methods are only possible for biological systems extracted from cells or reconstructed on solid substrates, nanodynamics within living cells largely remain inaccessible with existing bioimaging methods. In a new report now published in Science Advances, Marcos Penedo and a research team in Nanolife Science and biotechnology at the Kanazawa University in Japan, overcame the limits of bioimaging by using nanoendoscopy-AFM. During the process, they inserted a needle-like probe into a living cell to present actin fiber, three-dimensional (3D) maps and 2D nanodynamics of the inner scaffold of the membrane with undetectable changes in cell viability. Unlike earlier AFM methods, the nanoprobe directly accessed the target intracellular components and explored the capabilities of AFM, including high-resolution imaging, nanomechanical mapping and molecular recognition to expand the observable range of intracellular structures in living cells.