The role of lasers in biomedicine goes under the spotlight this week as we explore the workings of photodynamic cancer therapy, find out how laser tweezers can be used to force-feed bugs to white blood cells and hear how a new technique uses laser-powered DNA nanoswitches to spot specific genes. Also, why the proton just got smaller, prompting a reevaluation of some trusted laws of physics, how antidepressants in seawater can make shrimps swim towards danger and a novel mechanism for natural selection - beneficial bacteria! Plus, in Kitchen Science, what the patterns produced by laser light shining through a substance can reveal about its structure.
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New research published in the journal Nature suggests that the proton might be as much as 4% smaller than we previously thought, and this discovery might prompt a revaluation of some trusted laws of physics...
Anti-depressants that end up in sewage effluent could have a major impact on marine wildlife, causing shrimp to swim towards instead of away from light...
Researchers in America have identified a chemical that encourages the growth of new neurons – and protects against neurodegeneration...
Why do fireflies flash in time? Their rhythmic, bioluminescent displays are extraordinary phenomena, sometimes lighting up entire forests with bright pulses of light. But why it happens is one of nature’s great mysteries – there are lots of ideas, but until now no one has experi...
In the wild, a gene that produces an organism’s chances of surviving increases their odds of reproducing. It’s usually passed down to the next generation and so, that gene will become more common in the population. But what if instead of a gene giving an advantage, it’s actual...
We explore photodynamic therapy and photochemical internalisation - cancer treatments involving lasers...
A new technique is being developed that uses lasers to look at individual molecules. This could be used for faster sequencing of DNA and also in the development of what are called DNA nano switches, which can accurately identify certain sequences that you're looking for. Meera...
A few weeks ago on the Naked Scientists, we heard how a highly focused laser beam can be used as if it were a pair of tweezers – it forms an “optical trap” that allows us to manipulate very, very tiny objects. Now this technology has allowed researchers to try some very novel t...
Make strange patterns using a laser pointer and use them to discover a fundamental property of light
How does a biologist end up working on lasers?
If we form a tunnel between two poles of the Earth and there is a free fall of a marble form the tunnel what will happen?
If you incubated bacteria on a mobile phone touch screen, what bacteria would you find, and could you tell the areas that are touched most?
Why does an ice cube melt in a glass of water?
Why is it when the Spanish came to "the New World" it was in a sort of "bronze age" (in general) as far as technology while Europe had Da-Vinci, the Renaissance, iron, guns etc. was it geography, religion, nutrition?
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