In Prey, Michael Crichton's tale of nanotech gone awry, a swarm of light-sensitive nanoparticles swim through a human body, creating the ultimate medical imaging system. In the real world, biochemists are hoping to go one step further, deploying viruses as "nano-cameras" to get a unique picture of what goes on inside living cells - and a greater understanding of how viruses themselves work. A team led by Bogdan Dragnea at Indiana University in Bloomington is exploiting the ability of viruses laden with gold to break into cells, along with the viral shell's own telltale response to laser light. Together these give an unprecedented picture of the chemical and physical activity in cells.
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