A New Tool for Biologists, Doctors and Maybe Materials Scientists

"There really does not appear to be any other useful technique to look at thes...

"There really does not appear to be any other useful technique to look at these natural photonic crystals microscopically," Lupton says. "The silver nanoparticle approach to microscopy potentially could be very versatile, allowing us to view other highly scattering samples such as tumor cells, bone samples or amorphous materials in general." Amorphous materials are those without a crystal structure.While Lupton believes the new method will be of interest mainly to biologists, he also says it could be useful for materials science.For example, silver nanoparticles could be embedded in the carbon-fiber plastic in modern aircraft. The integrity of the fuselage or other aircraft components could be inspected regularly by exciting the embedded particles with a laser, and measuring how much light from the particles is transmitted through the fuselage material. Changes in transmission of the light would indicate changes in the fuselage structure, a warning that closer inspections of fuselage integrity are required.Lupton says the structure within the beetle’s scales scatters light very strongly, like driving through a snowstorm: "Once your windshield gets wet, headlights appear all fuzzy, and different features get mixed up."Using the tiny silver nanoparticles as light sources to see crystal structure within the beetle’s scale is like "peering through your smudged windshield at a tiny white spot," Lupton adds. "It would not appear smeared out."