Author: Guosong Hong, Assistant Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, Stanford University

Why isn’t your body transparent? Some animals such as jellyfish, zebra fish and some glass frogs have see-through bodies. But most mammals, including humans, aren’t transparent. While the idea of a transparent body might seem odd or even a bit creepy, it could actually be really helpful for doctors. If our bodies were transparent, doctors could easily see inside to diagnose diseases in organs such as the liver, spleen and brain. They wouldn’t need invasive procedures such as biopsies or expensive machines such as CT scanners and MRIs. I’m a materials scientist, and my team and I work on how…