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New Microprobe Shines Light Below Organ Wall Surfaces

Photonics and ultrasound engineering researchers from Duke University and The George Washington University have collaborated to design an optical scanner miniaturized enough to be inserted into the body, where its light beams could someday detect abnormalities hidden in the walls of the colon, bladder or esophagus. The experimental device, called an “electrostatic micromachine scanning mirror for optical coherence tomography,” is described in an article published in the April 15, 2003, issue of the research journal Optics Letters.