Author: Timothy Hearn, Senior Lecturer in Bioinformatics, Anglia Ruskin University

Imagine being able to see right through your skin to watch your muscles or organs in action. It sounds like science fiction, but a group of scientists at Stanford University were recently able to make the skin of live mice appear transparent – at least under certain light conditions. This breakthrough has unquestionably opened up new possibilities in biological research and medical imaging. So how did they do it, and could it ever lead to humans becoming invisible? When we look at objects, light reflects off them, allowing our eyes to see shapes and colours. However, living tissue such as…