Optical Frequency Combs have proved such a valuable dick for scientists their design won the2005 Physics Nobel Prize . physicist are seeking a counterpart using speech sound . One squad has discover a way to achieve the end using the bubble maker from a home Pisces the Fishes tank , and retrieve it may prove flashy and more portable than alternatives .
Optical relative frequency combsproduce light at evenly spaced wavelength . Partially transparent objects affect the different frequencies in different ways , and comparisons can ply unprecedented brainstorm into whatever is being study . Dr Ivan Maksymovof Swinburne University compare the comb to a pale fence , with each frequency give off analogous to a lookout man . “ If you tried to build a fencing on a rocky road and did n’t compensate for the swelling the top of the fence will echo what is underneath , ” Maksymov told IFLScience . “ If you ran your hand along the top the difference in fence summit would narrate you about the road . ”
Maksymov is cracking to create a vis-a-vis using ultrasound which could be used in places where light does not get across well , such as the deep ocean or the human organic structure . However , opthalmic absolute frequency combs are usually made with a laser , whose single wavelength gets split to produce ordered light source at millions of separate absolute frequency . acoustical waving miss an obvious counterpart .
Recently , two other teams have published papers announcing acoustic frequency cockscomb . One take the obvious path – simply produce strait at many different wavelengths and beaming it at the objective . The other vibrates an aluminium nitride - covered atomic number 14 wafer and has itinteract with ultrasound waves , create a cooking stove of discrete frequencies .
Maksymov ’s technique , announce inScientific Reports , has more in common with the second approach , but still brings something new . Maksymov vibrated the bubble produced by an aerator from an aquarium with single - frequency healthy wave . The reception was a set of legal waves with discrete , equally spaced relative frequency .
Indeed , Maksymov told IFLScience , the technique works so well the bubbles in a bottle of fizzy urine could be used alternatively .
Small bubbles in the bloodstream are safe enough they are already used totransport drugs , Maksymov noted , for instance across the pedigree - mind barrier to assail brain cancers . Consequently , it should be potential to peer late into the human torso by rebound echography off bubbles inside us and using the leave frequency coxcomb to make clearer impression than any existing imagination method .
The same technique could be used to study submersed environment , for deterrent example provide precise mensuration of distances subaqueous . Indeed , Maksymov include , it ’s possible animals like dolphinfish – that are known to use sonar to inquire their surround – have been making frequency combs long before us . As far as he is aware , no one has inquire the possibility that this is the case .
The oeuvre was done while Maksymov and coauthors were trapped at home during Melbourne ’s COVID-19 lockdown , a lack of access to the lab contribute to the DIY nature of the equipment . There may be a payoff in the process , with combs bring forth this way being cheap and more portable than those trust on higher - technical school equipment , Maksymov thinks .
Lockdown - apply home inquiry also won Maksymov this class ’s IgNobel aperient prize , thanks to his work turningdrunk earthwormsinto Faraday - like waves .
