Seeing the light
Researchers have developed a “smart petri dish” that signals cell death with intense light. The system could find use in screening drugs for toxic effects.
Rather than growing cells in a plastic dish, Michael J. Sailor of the University of California, San Diego and his colleagues use a photonic crystal, which is a silicon chip that controls the propagation of light. The chip they designed prevents red light from passing through, so when exposed to a light source, the chips reflect red light back.