Ultrasound

Scientists in Germany have succeeded in developing the smallest ultrasound detector ever created, which is tinier than a blood cell and opens up new possibilities in what is known as super-resolution imaging.

For people who rely on Braille, reading displays and signs in public can be a challenge, but a new system could help. HaptiRead is a haptic feedback device that uses ultrasound pulses in precise patterns to reproduce Braille text in midair.

The brain is hard to treat – medications have side effects and surgery is dangerous and invasive. But now, researchers have shown how ultrasound can be used to affect specific regions of the brain, and even influence behavior in monkeys.

A new study is offering insight into how a novel ultrasound technique could help treat Alzheimer’s disease describing how the treatment weakens the blood-brain barrier in brain cells, potentially improving the uptake of drugs to treat the disease.

An emerging method is adapting x-ray to image soft tissue, so that its higher resolution can reveal tumors earlier than MRI or ultrasound. And now, researchers have taken the first image using the new x-ray method, as a proof of concept.

Ultrasound has become an indispensable tool for showing us internal tissues of the human body, but a new ultrasonic biosensor could see it offer a far more detailed and dynamic picture as the body responds to drugs or disease.

One consequence of cancer and other diseases spreading throughout the body can be the hardening of the extracellular matrix surrounding cells. Scientists have now developed a new way to non-destructively detect such changes using sound waves.

A team of researchers is proposing a radical new technique for killing cancer cells using low-intensity ultrasound waves. The work is still at an early stage but cell tests have shown sound waves can destroy cancer while leaving healthy cells intact.

The quality of 3D-printed metal parts could soon improve, thanks to new research out of Australia. Scientists there have determined that the application of ultrasound boosts the strength of such items, by modifying their microstructure.

Researchers from MIT have revealed the very first images of a human generated through a novel laser ultrasound imaging technique. Unlike conventional ultrasound, the new technique does not require any skin contact with the body.

A new type of ultrasound technology promises to make a touch-sensitive surface out of just about any common material – metal, glass, wood, plastic – which could open up a number of new ways to interact with our gadgets.

A new study from Northwestern University is demonstrating evidence a novel implantable ultrasound device allows a less toxic formulation of chemotherapy to cross the blood-brain barrier and destroy deadly tumors.