Sure it’s bad to inhale carbon nanotubes, but if you just inject a few specially-designed nanoworms doctors might detect a cancerous tumor early enough to save your life. Special nanoworms made of strings of iron-oxide particles can be designed to seek out the common protein signatures of cancerous tumors. When your doctor uses an MRI to scan your body, the nanoworms show up very vividly in the resulting images. Researchers glancing at the images will see the tumors much more easily, and treat you before things get really hairy. [via Indulge in the Fascinating World of Tomography]
