Ultrasound

When we think of camouflage, it’s usually a visual pattern. But how do you hide from a predator that uses sound to find food, like a bat? If you’re a firefly, it turns out you might resort to a cacophony of ultrasound that acts like “musical armor.”

A landmark proof-of-concept study reveals a novel brain-machine interface using ultrasound tracking brain activity to predict subsequent motor movements. The preliminary research suggests a non-invasive way of controlling computers with one's mind.

Obesity is one of the most pressing health problems, but a new study suggests a potential non-invasive treatment. In tests in mice, researchers found that directing ultrasound to the liver helped reduce a number of markers associated with obesity.

The 2019 North American outbreak of E. coli contamination in romaine lettuce doubtless got many people thinking about how to most effectively wash their leafy veggies. Well, a new study suggests that using ultrasonic water may be the best way to go.

A new study has demonstrated how the brain's waste disposal system might be kicked into gear via ultrasound to treat Alzheimer's, with the technique proving effective in stimulating activity of this system in patients as part of early human trials.

Although various groups are working on nanoparticles that could be used for directed drug delivery via the bloodstream, most of those particles are made to "go with the flow." Now, however, researchers have created ones that can travel upstream.

Five years ago, we heard how a team at UCLA had used ultrasound to seemingly "jump start" a patient out of a coma. At the time, the scientists wondered if such results could be repeated. They have now done it two more times.

Blood clots can be dangerous, and blood thinning drugs aren’t always enough to clear them out. Now, researchers at North Carolina State University have demonstrated an ultrasonic “drill” that can break clots apart with the help of tiny nanodroplets.

Ordinarily, medical ultrasound imaging systems are big and bulky enough that they have to be pushed along on wheeled carts. The new Vave probe, however, can be carried in a pocket and paired with a smartphone.

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.