Plasmonic nanomaterials have the unique ability to sustain collective oscillations of electrons when they interact with light. This property can be utilised in many different applications ranging from sensing to photothermal cancer treatment. Traditionally, Au and Ag have been the dominant plasmonic metals studied in this field, and there is a reason for that. Au […]
In my PhD, I make multispectral cameras for detecting early cancer and pre-cancerous disease in Barrett’s Oesophagus. Barrett’s Oesophagus is a largely benign condition impacting up to 1 in 15 people. Barrett’s occurs when repeated stomach acid reflux causes the usually smooth lining of the lower food-pipe becomes bumpy with protruding columnar cells, similar to […]
Since its invention in the 1600s, the microscope has enabled scientists to study biological systems previously invisible to understand structure and function. Fluorescence microscopy is a non-invasive and gentle technique that involves ‘tagging’ biological molecules of interest with fluorescent dyes (ranging from fluorescent proteins to chemically designed organic dyes) and measuring fluorescence emission. However, there […]
Microbes are the hidden heroes of our Earth, populating the dirt, the oceans, our skin, and more. Some microbes specialize in breaking things down, like the bacteria that cause food to decay over time. Others specialize in building- creating the fundamental building blocks of life. A special class of these are capable of taking nothing […]
The world around us shines with light of all different colours — some visible, some invisible to the human eye. Light is an oscillation in the electromagnetic field, and the length-scale of that oscillation determines the light’s wavelength, which, in turn, determines how that light behaves or how it can be used. So-called mid-infrared wavelengths […]