In this episode of Photonics Hot List…
Get a glimpse into the past while searching for the unknown. A new device is allowing researchers in Hawaii to detect microscopic amounts of biomarkers and bio-residue in fish fossils and sedimentary rock. Someday, this could lead to a better study of potential evidence of life beyond our world.
Learn how efforts by scientists in China could help clean up the Earth’s waterways. They’ve developed a laser-propelled fish robot that can detect and absorb microplastic pollutants in the water and ultimately remove them. The technology may eventually be made to monitor and target other pollutants, as well.
Explore the brain at unprecedented depths. Researchers in Hong Kong have demonstrated noninvasive in vivo imaging of a mouse brain’s neuronal structures through its intact skull, thanks to a combo three-photon microscopy/adaptive optics microscope they’ve created. This has the potential to explain some of the many secrets of the living brain.
