Space-based experiments are transforming the detection of cancer and environmental pollutants using bubbles to achieve new levels of sensitivity and precision.
Bubbles in Microgravity
In this world, cancers can be detected all the way back at every pre-tumorigenic stage, and even finding anything but a single molecule of the most elusive plastics in seawater becomes a trivial matter. It is a vision of the future that Tengfei Luo at the University of Notre Dame is researching.
Luo’s work harnesses the special behaviors of bubbles in microgravity—economically, surface tension is more significant than gravity. While this looks fascinating, physics nerds would know that bubbles are actually governed by competing forces here on Earth — such as surface tension and buoyancy, which are nullified in the absence of gravity. This enables bubbles to get larger, stronger, and more lasting on the surface which allows them to concentrate for even the smallest substances much better in liquid samples.
Identifying Cancer and Pollutants
The method Luo is developing would use such space-grown bubbles to identify biomarkers of cancer in blood samples, and extremely low levels of plastic pollutants in ocean water. The reason for this is that a larger bubble in microgravity can concentrate these chemicals more effectively, which will result easier to identify and analyse.
Thus, Luo’s technology has the potential to substantially revolutionize cancer diagnosis, allowing for early screening of nearly all cancers even before any symptoms appear. This could mean earlier diagnosis, and therefore treatment, with a massive increase in patient outcomes. Detecting minute plastic pollutants — down to the nanoscale — could help study and fight their environmental impact.
Conclusion
Tengfei Luo and a team of researchers from the University of Notre Dame has transformed how we can detect cancer as well as environmental pollutants. In doing so, they can develop more sensitive and accurate sensors that leverage the unusual behavior of bubbles in microgravity for social and environmental applications such as early disease diagnosis or tracking environmental chemicals. The space industry is growing and the prospects for this innovative technology to have a positive impact on both humanity while living on Earth, and beyond in the stars are truly astounding.
