Science superpower: Seeing through objects

Science fiction movies have given us hope about developing superpowers such as invisibility, super strengh and teletransportation. What if I tell you we are closer to that then we have ever been What if I tell you we have already developed a science superpower?

A new technique called “ultimate DISCO” (uDISCO) presents a fast way to see through objects – to be more specific, through rodents.

Published in Nature this week, uDISCO is a new alternative approach to tissue-clearing that overcomes any other technique. The method consists in removing the water and lipids that makes the body opaque and preserving fluorescent proteins. The outcome is a full view of the nervous system and entire organs in only a few days.

This science superpower is a major boost for future researches. As published on Science latest news section:

“This technique allows the highest resolution images yet for a whole body, its creators report online today in Nature Methods. That should help scientists better see how a disease affects neurons throughout the body—like how a stroke can cause neuromuscular weakness—because it’s nearly impossible to reconnect the millions of neurons throughout a rodent body once dissected”

The authors not only explained how the uDISCO works but also provided amazing images. The reasearch graphical abstracts and pictures show how the method succeeds, the comparison between other techniques and the outcome obtained with uDISCO. It is a true masterpiece. You can understand a bit better the steps to build this kind of graphical flow reading our post “What makes a good infographic?”.

The uDISCO technique can be broadly used in biomedical sciences. Now, it is possible to start thinking about understanding neurodegeneration in diseases, inflammation processes and 3D mapping of the human brain.

It does feel like we are developing superpowers. Which one will be the next?

Science superpower: Seeing through objects

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About Fabricio Pamplona