Image Credit: Natalotschka/Shutterstock.com Understanding how the properties of wood change during the aging process is vital to the conversation of historic buildings, the success of projects constructing buildings with reused wood, and ensuring the performance and durability of wood as a modern construction material. Here we discuss how atomic force microscopy is being used as a much-needed accurate method of analyzing wood aging. A Lack of Research into the Aging of Wood Not much is known about the aging process of wood, it is an area that has been neglected by research, partly because of the lack of accurate techniques available to assess the impact of aging on the properties of wood. This lack of knowledge significantly impacts the increasing use of wood as a modern construction material.