nanotubes inside living animals

Scientists have used near-infrared fluorescence microscopy to image carbon nanotubes inside a living organism for the first time.Bruce Weisman and colleagues at Rice University used the imaging technique to detect carbon nanotubes inside fruit fly larvae. The team hopes that its technique may eventually be used to detect tumours in human cancer patients.The Rice researchers achieved their result by introducing nanotubes into fruit fly larvae by feeding them on food laced with the nanomaterials. Next, they imaged the nanotubes in the living organisms using a camera inside a custom-designed infrared microscope and compared the images with a control group of flies that had not been fed nanotubes.