ALT Illustration of Acoustofluidic Cryo-EM (ACE), a specimen preparation strategy that uses acoustic waves to enhance cryo-electron microscopy. In developing ACE, Yang et al. integrated acoustofluidic manipulation into a conventional plunge-freezing workflow, preserving the structural integrity of samples while improving imaging quality. The sound waves eliminate contamination as no physical tools are needed, helping prevent damage when capturing images and ensuring a more uniform distribution of nanoparticles. ACE provides a method to improve specimen quality and imaging efficiency and expand structural studies of challenging biological systems. Credit: Jun Huang, Ying Chen, and coauthors