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- The invisible man has come one step closer: scientists
believe they have found a way to make flesh transparent for a few minutes
at a time.
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- By manipulating the way light passes through tissue,
a team at the University of Texas at Austin has moved into what was once
the realm of science fiction. The engineers say they can create a temporary
"window" in tissue, allowing doctors to see up to five times
deeper than at present over an area of up to one or two square inches.
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- Although the technique has not yet been tested on human
skin, the engineers believe it could have applications in diagnosis; helping
to reveal the extent of skin cancer, for example, and in treatment, by
allowing a laser beam to be targeted on underlying tissue.
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- By injecting various substances, the team made small
areas of rat or hamster skin nearly transparent for 20 minutes or more.
Prof Ashley Welch, the lead investigator, said: "We could see a blood
vessel which had not been visible." Light does not usually penetrate
skin because it is scattered, like a torch beam in fog.
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- Just as each water droplet in the fog scatters light,
so small components of tissue also scatter light. To overcome this, his
team used glycerol, a hygroscopic alcohol which pulls water out of tissue.
The team has yet to look into the toxicity of the technique, which Prof
Welch admitted was "an important question".
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