In celebration of the UNESCO International Day of Light, Dr Joshua Kaggie discussed 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.
About the speaker
Dr Joshua Kaggie completed his PhD in Physics at the University of Utah, USA. His PhD involved building new kinds of equipment for MRI. In 2015, he joined the University of Cambridge and has been involved in new physics methods for imaging cancers and osteoarthritis with better sensitivity. Dr Kaggie currently manages the MRI equipment at a facility at Cambridge Biomedical Campus.