[SymphonicHealth] Listening for Cancer (fwd)

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Listening for Cancer

December 12, 2004

By CLIVE THOMPSON

Three years ago, the nanotechnology expert Gimzewski realized something

startling about human cells: since they have many tiny moving parts, they

might be producing tiny vibrations. And since all vibrations produce noise, it

would be theoretically possible to listen to the sound of a cell. Gimzewski set

about adapting an extremely small device to measure these vibrations and then

with another device proceeded to amplify them loud enough for human ears. He

discovered that a yeast cell produced about 1,000 vibrations a second. When he

amplified the signal, a musical hum filled the room. ''It wasn't at all what I

expected,'' he recalls. ''It sounded beautiful.''

Beautiful, and also potentially revolutionary. Gimzewski says that his

technique could become a unique tool in the war against cancer: to figure out if

a

cell is malignant, doctors could simply listen to it.

When a cell turns cancerous, its internal machinery alters: it might divide

more rapidly, and its walls could take a new shape. Those changes, Gimzewski

surmises, would produce distinctive rates of vibration and thus distinctive

noises. He has already measured the acoustics of some cells going through death

cycles. When he measured an inert yeast cell, its lack of movement produced a

dead-sounding hiss. And when he immersed a bunch of yeast in alcohol, the cells

emitted a creepy ''screaming'' sound as they suddenly perished. Even minute

changes -- like getting warmer -- make the cells sing differently. Gimzewski

calls his technique sonocytology, and in August he published the first paper on

this field in the journal Science.

Gimzewski's work has attracted some unusual enthusiasts. Representatives of

the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi contacted him (''they apparently thought I'd

discovered 'the language of life,''' he says), and a horror-movie director asked

if he

could use the sound of screaming cells in his soundtrack. But cancer

specialists are seriously interested, and Gimzewski is now trying to adapt his

device

to listen to human cells.

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/12/magazine/12LISTENING.html_._,_.___