The atomic force microscope (AFM) is unique in its capability to capture high-resolution images of biological samples in liquids. This capability becomes more valuable to biological sciences if AFM additionally acquires an ability of high-speed imaging. "Direct and real-time visualization" is a straightforward and powerful means of understanding biomolecular processes. With conventional AFM, it takes more than a minute to capture an image, while biomolecular processes generally occur on a millisecond timescale. In order to fill this large gap,various efforts have been carried out in the past decade. Here, we review these past efforts, describe the current state of the capability and limitations of our high-speed AFM, and discuss possibilities that may break the limitations, leading to an innovative high-speed bioAFM.%機能している生体分子の構造・動作を直接見て，その機能rnする仕組みを理解することは生命科学のひとつの夢であっrnた．その夢が今，ようやく現実のものとなった．液中のナノrnメーター世界を唯一観察できる原子間力顕微鏡（AFM）のrn走査速度を飛躍的に高めることで，実現された．
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