Live Tour: Joystick journeys reveal tumor interiors

U.S. and British scientists have devised a gentle way to peer inside living flesh. They use holograms.

LURKING WITHIN. This holographic journey into a ball-like rat tumor reveals reflective structures (red blobs)–probably dead-cell clumps called necroses–just a little way into the mass (above) and also deeper (below). Yu/Purdue

Yu/Purdue

The laser-based method eventually may enable doctors to dispense with tissue biopsies on or near external and internal body surfaces, says team leader David D.