Optics/​Photonics

A new optical device about the size of a hand-held video camera, developed by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, can scan a patient’s entire retina in seconds and could aid primary care physicians in early detection of many retinal diseases, including diabetic retinopathy,...

The aim of this work is to conduct preliminary evaluations of new rehabilitation strategies and new functional assessment methods for homonymous hemianopia (HH) and spatial neglect (SN), two disabling visual and cognitive perception conditions that...

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has developed prototype calibration tools for an experimental medical imaging technique that offers new advantages in diagnosing and monitoring of certain cancers and possibly other medical conditions.

Small optical devices can be valuable as diagnostic imaging tools within the body, for instance, as optical probes with a 360-degree view in the gastrointestinal tract. A new microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) silicon chip developed by researchers from the Agency for Science, Technology and Research...

Scientists at the Weizmann Institute, Rehovot, Israel, have taken a quantum leap toward understanding the exciting phenomenon of superconductivity. They have created the world’s smallest SQUID, a Superconducting QUantum Interference Device, used to measure magnetic fields, breaking the world...

A team of researchers at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, have received a $1.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health for its project to perfect the technology to steer a robotic catheter through the heart’s beating chambers using the push and pull of magnetic fields while...

Researchers from the Laboratory of Polymer Chemistry in the University of Helsinki’s Department of Chemistry in Finland have managed to draw in an alcohol-based solution using laser light. The research was published in the journal, Macromolecules.

Microbeam radiation therapy (MRT) provides tremendous promise for cancer patients due to its ability to destroy tumor cells while protecting surrounding healthy tissue. Yet its clinical use has been limited by the size of the massive electron accelerators called synchrotrons needed to generate the...

Breast cancer is one of the most common forms of cancer and cancer deaths among women worldwide. Routine screening can increase breast cancer survival by detecting the disease early when it is most treatable. A new imaging tool, called a photoacoustic mammoscope, being developed by a team of researchers at the...

Measuring blood flow in the laboratory to study ailments like migraines or strokes and designing new ways to address them can be accomplished using laser speckle contrast imaging. However, this requires expensive professional-grade imaging equipment. Researchers at the University of Texas at...

Laser-based technology could make brain tumor surgery more accurate by allowing surgeons to better identify cancer tissue from normal brain tissue at a microscopic level during surgery. This could allow them to avoid leaving behind cells that could spawn a new tumor, say a team of...