New Camera Offers Surgeons 'Butterfly's-Eye' View of Cancer
Inspired by the eye of the morpho butterfly, a new camera that sees both visible and infrared light could help surgeons identify cancerous tissue. Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Washington University in St. Louis developed the surgical camera. The tiny camera, connected to goggles that a surgeon wears, sees infrared signals given off by tumor-binding dyes so that the surgeon can find and remove the cancerous tissue.