(for educational purposes only - fair use - whatever that line is..)

Scientists discover key to invisibility By Roger Highfield, Science Editor

Prof Ashley Welch - University of Texas at Austin An Introduction to Skin Cancer

THE invisible man has come one step closer: scientists believe they have found a way to make flesh transparent for a few minutes at a time.

By manipulating the way light passes through tissue, a team at the University of Texas at Austin has moved into what was once the realm of science fiction. The engineers say they can create a temporary "window" in tissue, allowing doctors to see up to five times deeper than at present over an area of up to one or two square inches.

Although the technique has not yet been tested on human skin, the engineers believe it could have applications in diagnosis; helping to reveal the extent of skin cancer, for example, and in treatment, by allowing a laser beam to be targeted on underlying tissue.

By injecting various substances, the team made small areas of rat or hamster skin nearly transparent for 20 minutes or more. Prof Ashley Welch, the lead investigator, said: "We could see a blood vessel which had not been visible." Light does not usually penetrate skin because it is scattered, like a torch beam in fog.

Just as each water droplet in the fog scatters light, so small components of tissue also scatter light. To overcome this, his team used glycerol, a hygroscopic alcohol which pulls water out of tissue. The team has yet to look into the toxicity of the technique, which Prof Welch admitted was "an important question".

-- The Invisible Man (YouCan't@see.me!), August 23, 2000

Answers

Cool, IM! I don't think it'd make you invisible, though...

-- Tricia the Canuck (jayles@telusplanet.net), August 23, 2000.

Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon....and for the rest of your life...(or..it might not add up to a hill of beans..but that's another story..)

-- The Invisible Man (YouCan't@see.me!), August 23, 2000.

fuckin brilliant!!

-- number six (iam_not_a_number@hotmail.com), August 26, 2000.

.....aaaaaalll except for the "pulls water out of tissues" bit, which, on the face of it, sounds overly dangerous, ala most AMA- approved """treatments."""

If it's not a flat-out brilliant treatment, (which it could be!,) then it'll probably be a mediocre one;

which needs to be over-prescribed makin' economies of scale required, to payback the assorted, moni-ed squires,

who ponied up the d'oh, to fund the invention..

Over-prescription is maga-nified, by the schmucks and nebbisheez we've all escried, stetheskope -iopathic A-type sheep, Truly... the mothers of convention.

Sorry for me to sound pink for a second, but since I was 12 - I have always reckoned... It is the investment class, That's biting our ass, that's in charge of the planet we're wreckin'. ;-)>

-- number six (yoda@mo_shipton.com), August 26, 2000.

....and that had formatting a second ago!!! Bloody Phil!

-- number six (yawaddever@invar_wears_dresses.com), August 26, 2000.

Six, what exactly WERE you drinking...and more importantly..where can I get some?

-- It Ain't Becks.. (WhatTheHell@DoYouAussies.Drink?), August 27, 2000.

I invented invisibility and holodeck technology.Both are one and the same things.Both require 3-Dimensional lenticular(hologram-card) imaging,one is the inverse form of the other!Check out my webpage with pics of my invention that I call The Lenticular Box(still-life invisibility).Please be patient for the page to download. http://www.angelfire.com/wizard/www.iinvented.com/ Then,if that has sparked your curiosity,check out my Yahoo! group.My work is more advanced than the box alone,but anyone can build their own box for under 20 dollars worth of material that you can get at a hardware store.Adding images gets more expensive,that is why I currently have only three images on it so far.My Yahoo! group is in the adult area as I have my nude pics posted and I cuss and rant like a sailor.If you are any type of person chances are that I might've posted a message that would offend you in some way or the other.Go here>>>> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/iinventedinvisibility

-- Keith Jason Carlock (asathaxx@aol.com), July 05, 2002.