I’ve been out of town for a week enjoying Florida wildlife and palmy views. Today’s blog focuses on beauty rather than art — an article this month in Nature Magazine about nanolights has made my eyeballs grin.
The nanolight revolution — virus-sized particles that fluoresce in every color
My first reaction is art material! but more practical types are thinking television displays and cancer treatment.
At Biopolis, a sprawling research complex in Singapore, Chi Ching Goh leans over an anesthetized mouse lying on the table in front of her, and carefully injects it with a bright yellow solution. She then gently positions the mouse’s ear underneath a microscope, and flips a switch to bathe the ear in ultraviolet light. Seen through the microscope’s eyepiece, the illumination makes the blood underneath the skin glow green, tracing the delicate vessels that carry the solution through the creature’s body.
Chi Ching Goh is focused on pinpointing blood vessels made leaky by inflammation. Stroke prediction, malaria research. I imagine art that changes guise under varying fluorescent lights.
Feast your eyes. Next week I’ll again showcase an admirable artist.