Biophotonics is a multidisciplinary field that involves the development and application of light-based technologies to study, monitor and treat biological systems. The ability to directly image cells and molecules has led to many fundamental discoveries in the past century. More recently, the terahertz (THz) region of the electromagnetic spectrum has attracted growing interest as a promising frontier for advancing biological research.
The THz frequency range is associated with several fundamental biological processes. Although THz radiation is strongly absorbed by water—traditionally viewed as a limitation—this property can enable sensitive characterization of hydration states and water content. Compared with visible light, THz waves can also penetrate certain biological tissues more effectively.
However, despite steady advancements, the adoption of THz biophotonics still lags behind visible light-based techniques in directly observing cellular and molecular dynamics. This is largely due to several challenges, including relatively low spatial resolution (a consequence of the longer THz wavelengths), high sensitivity to water that complicates measurements, slower imaging speeds and bulky instrumentation. Fortunately, recent developments suggest strong future potential.
Scientists have shed light on a thermal process in magma that may help explain why similar volcanic systems can produce very different eruptive behaviors.
An international team, led by The University of Manchester, studied magma from the 2021 Tajogaite eruption on La Palma, Spain, and found that “superheating”—a state in which magma is heated above the temperature at which crystals are stable—can strongly delay the formation of crystals as magma rises towards Earth’s surface.
Published in Nature Communications, the study shows that high temperatures can dissolve tiny pre-existing crystal “seeds” that normally help new crystals begin to form. Superheating also changes the internal structure of the magma, making it more uniform, and less able to support the formation of new crystals. This influences how quickly magma rises and how easily volcanic gases can escape, both of which play an important role in determining how explosive the eruption will be.
A June update by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts suggests that the coming weather event will be the strongest ever measured.
