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IT MAY soon be possible to spot cancers and visualise brain activity using a camera.
University of Queensland researchers took inspiration from the compound eyes of mantis shrimps, which are tuned to detect polarised light.
Professor Justin Marshall, from the Queensland Brain Institute at UQ, said cancerous tissue reflected polarised light differently to surrounding healthy tissue.
Human eyes cannot see this because we see and discriminate between objects based on hues and shades. But mantis shrimps, with their superior eyes and the ability to see polarised light, are easily able to spot the difference.
“The camera that we’ve developed in close collaboration with US and UK scientists shoots video and could provide immediate feedback on detecting cancer and monitoring the activity of exposed nerve cells,” says Professor Marshall.
“It converts the invisible messages into colours that our visual system is comfortable with.”
While current scopes and imaging systems already use polarised light to detect cancer, the shrimp-inspired technology gives researchers even more sensitive polarised light detection capabilities. This will help improve and widen these non-invasive detection methods, reducing the need for biopsies and guiding surgical procedures.
“Nature has coming up with elegant and efficient design principles, so we are combining the mantis shrimp’s millions of years of evolution – nature’s engineering – with our relatively few years of work with the technology,” Professor Marshall explained.
This may lead to a redesign of smartphone cameras, allowing people to self-monitor for cancers and reduce the burden on health systems.