Dr Joshua Kaggie, in collaboration with the Lucy Cavendish College – University of Cambridge, gave a talk to celebrate the UNESCO International Day of Light. Dr Kaggie is a key member of the STARSTEM team, who brings a wealth of expertise in ‘Magnetic Resonance Imaging’ or ‘MRI’. In this talk, Dr Kaggie talked about different kinds of light and how they are used in medicine.
In this virtual talk, Dr Kaggie discussed the many different kinds of light and how we use these in medicine. When we think of light, we think about the light that we can see. There are many different kinds of light that we can’t see that are very important: heat gives off light as infrared radiation. Doctors and physicists use much lower frequencies of light that comes in the form of electromagnetism to image your body with ‘Magnetic Resonance Imaging’ or ‘MRI’. We also use much higher frequencies of light from radioactive tracers that we capture in ‘Positron Emission Tomography’ or ‘PET’. New forms of imaging also use light to create sound with ‘photoacoustic imaging’. Dr Kaggie explained the ranges of light, basics of how these work, and give examples of how these are used to help detect diseases better.
The event was hosted by Lucy Cavendish College on the 18th of May. Read more about the event or watch the recording on YouTube.