A piconewton is an incredibly small unit of force equal to one trillionth of a newton. It is the scale of force exerted by molecular motors, such as kinesin moving along microtubules, or the force required to stretch a single strand of DNA. Biophysicists measure piconewtons using instruments like optical tweezers.
Heard on the job
The optical trap measured a stall force of about six piconewtons for the motor protein.