Extract

The scientific community is indebted to Dr. Topaz for making a connection between a regularly used surgical procedure (ultrasound-assisted lipoplasty [UAL]) and a phenomenon (sonoluminescence [SL]) whose study sits at the frontiers of physics research. If anyone doubts that the sound field that vibrates the tip of a UAL cannula causes the emission of light, the real-time photograph in the Figure should undo their skepticism. Shown in this photograph is the region of water surrounding the vibrating tip of a Mentor device marketed for UAL. The blue glow is due to the appearance of cavitation bubbles in the strong sound field. These bubbles expand during the rarefaction part of the sound cycle when the pressure can be –4 atm. Then, during the compression part of the sound field, these bubbles implode with such force that they focus the diffuse sound energy by a factor of 1 trillion to make a 100-picosecond flash of ultraviolet light and a 1-μm–sized spot that is much hotter than the surface of the sun.1–4 The energy focused into the beard of bubbles on the top and bottom sides of the tip of the probe is the means of therapeutic action of UAL.5

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