Characterization access

You can’t tell if something self-assembled correctly without looking at it. For the nanometer-scale work in the digests, that means microscopes most people will never own.

What exists today

Optical microscopes (including phone-based ones) for anything above about a micrometer: colloids, droplets, bacteria, robot swarms.
Shared university core facilities offering AFM (atomic force microscopy), SEM, and TEM by the hour, often with training or staff-run service.
National user facilities that give free access for research that will be published, through short proposals.
Gel electrophoresis as the cheap first check for DNA structures.

Example facilities

Need	Examples (verified links)	Notes
Shared tools across US universities	NNCI	More than 2,000 tools across member sites
Nanoscience user facility	Molecular Foundry (Berkeley Lab)	Proposal-based
Nanoscience user facility	Center for Functional Nanomaterials (Brookhaven)	Proposal-based
Directory of DOE user facilities	DOE Office of Science user facilities	Find one near you
Instrument makers	Bruker , Thermo Fisher	AFM, electron microscopes
Classroom gels	Edvotek , miniPCR bio	Education-grade electrophoresis

Maturity

Optical microscopy and gels: hobbyist to university-lab.
AFM, SEM, TEM: university-lab, through shared facilities.
Fast, cheap, inline checking of nanoscale assembly: not yet available.

Bottlenecks and gaps

Electron microscopy is slow, expensive per sample, and needs trained operators. Most facilities need a sponsoring lab or teacher. Image analysis of thousands of structures is still largely custom code.

What would need to exist for scale-up

Optical or electrical tests that confirm correct assembly in seconds, automated image analysis, and outreach programs that let high-school and undergraduate students send samples to shared facilities.

Safety notes

Microscopes are safe to use. Sample prep sometimes uses stains (for example uranyl compounds for TEM) that only trained staff should handle.