Medical imaging is a set of diagnostic techniques that noninvasively visualize internal anatomical structures and physiological processes using diverse physical modalities. Core methods include ionizing-radiation–based techniques (e.g., radiography, computed tomography, nuclear medicine, PET/SPECT), non-ionizing modalities (e.g., MRI, ultrasound, optical imaging), and hybrid systems (e.g., PET/CT, PET/MRI). These techniques exploit contrasts in tissue density, proton properties, acoustic impedance, or radiotracer distribution to generate qualitative and quantitative data. Medical imaging underpins clinical decision-making, image-guided interventions, treatment planning, and longitudinal monitoring, and increasingly incorporates advanced reconstruction algorithms, quantitative biomarkers, and AI-driven image analysis.
Near-infrared spectroscopy, or fNIRS, offers a way to monitor brain activity without surgery or radiation by tracking changes in blood flow and oxygenation. Light sources placed on the scalp send near-infrared light into ...
Optics & Photonics
Apr 7, 2026
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By comparing osteoarthritis pain pathways known to be active in dogs and humans to those in cats with degenerative joint disease (DJD), researchers found that elevation of a particular molecule, artemin, could serve as a ...
Veterinary medicine
Mar 30, 2026
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Leaf through a textbook, watch a wellness influencer, or listen in at the gym, and it can feel as though the human body has already been mapped to exhaustion. Every muscle named, every nerve traced. Everything understood ...
Evolution
Mar 30, 2026
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164
Scientists at the University of Warwick and University of Exeter have developed a fully fiber-coupled terahertz (THz) imaging system that significantly improves the speed, resolution, and clinical practicality of terahertz ...
Optics & Photonics
Mar 20, 2026
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60
Animal studies often fail to predict human tissue responses to new drugs or newly developed therapies. Besides generating tremendous costs for clinical studies, it also raises significant ethical concerns. Therefore, novel ...
Cell & Microbiology
Mar 19, 2026
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15
The Nanomedicine and Nanotoxicology Group (GNano) at the University of São Paulo's São Carlos Institute of Physics (IFSC-USP) in Brazil has discovered a way to transform hydroxyapatite, a bioceramic material, into a nanoparticle ...
Bio & Medicine
Mar 19, 2026
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61
Engineers at Duke University have demonstrated a technique that uses microbubbles and ultrasound to help relatively large cancer drugs enter tumor cells and cause them to self-destruct. Dubbed "Sonoporation-assisted Precise ...
Bio & Medicine
Mar 13, 2026
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79
Researchers from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) have found a new way to produce X-rays with wavelengths in what is called the "water window." This new method holds promise in making bioimaging ...
Optics & Photonics
Mar 6, 2026
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63
Microplastics (MPs), defined as plastic fragments with sizes ranging from millimeters (
Bio & Medicine
Mar 5, 2026
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26
Just a few days in simulated microgravity can subtly change the way women's blood clots, sparking bigger questions about health monitoring protocols for astronauts who can spend six months or more in orbit, say Simon Fraser ...
Space Exploration
Mar 4, 2026
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