1. AIDS
2. Alzheimer’s Disease
3. The Common Cold
4. Avian Flu
5. Pica
6. Autoimmune Disorders
7. Schizophrenia
8. Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease
9. Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
10. Morgellons Disease

Via : LiveScience

If you’ve ever wanted to be a Terminator or the Bionic Woman , new research at University of Washington may at least let you see with their eyes.

Engineers at the University of Washington have for the first time used manufacturing techniques at microscopic scales to combine a flexible, biologically safe contact lens with an imprinted electronic circuit and lights.

Image : Contact lenses with metal connectors for electronic circuits were safely worn by rabbits in lab tests. Credit: University of Washington

“Looking through a completed lens, you would see what the display is generating superimposed on the world outside,” said Babak Parviz, a UW assistant professor of electrical engineering. “This is a very small step toward that goal, but I think it’s extremely promising.”

The prototype device contains an electric circuit as well as red light-emitting diodes for a display, though it does not yet light up. The lenses were tested on rabbits for up to 20 minutes and the animals showed no adverse effects.

Researchers at the Stanford School of Medicine, led by Dr Sanjiv Gambhir, professor of radiology and biochemistry have utilized Raman spectroscopy to develop a new imaging system that enables doctors to visualize the cancers that are 1,000 times more detailed than previously possible. This technique has not been used so far in biological microscopic viewing but vastly used in other scientific researches.

So, What is Raman Effect ?

Raman effect is a unique phenomenon in physics that is based on the principle of scattering light.

When light shines on any surface, Raman found, and a tiny portion of the light is reflected back at a different wavelength that is precisely determined by the nature of the material illuminated. Out of 10 million photons of light, only one will bounce back with this distinctive “Raman” signal. But gather enough of them and ordinary light can be used to analyze the chemical nature of things.

Raman Effect was invented by great Indian scientist Chandrashekhar Venkat Raman in 1920 for which he had won Noble prize in Physics in 1930 for discovering it.

Chandrasekhar Venkata Raman, popularly known as C.V. Raman, was born in Thiruchinapalli, in Tamil Nadu, India on November 7, 1888.

A team of Stanford University researchers, led by Dr Sanjiv Gambhir, professor of radiology and biochemistry at Stanford University Medical School has developed a new imaging tool that can take pictures of cells and molecules deep inside the body.

The new imaging technique that can illuminate tiny molecules deep inside the human body, which helps doctors view minuscule tumours, 1,000 times smaller than previously possible - a process that is potentially safer and more sensitive than current cancer screens.

“This is an entirely new way of imaging living subjects, not based on anything previously used,” said lead author Sanjiv Sam Gambhir.

Sanjiv and his team have used the ‘Raman Effect’ technique that has not been used so far in biological microscopic that enables doctors to visualize the cancers that are 1,000 times more detailed than previously possible.