The value to producers’ and processors’ “ The probe contains bottom lines, says Hutchinson, who directs a tiny fibre-optic the national Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Nanoscale camera that shines BioPhotonics, could be significant. infra-red light,” says “Historically, producers have had to make many of their critical decisions subjectively, project lead Professor based largely on visual inspection and taste testing. Robert McLaughlin. “It sends live images “ Is my wine ready to a computer, where to bottle? Does my custom-designed beef’s quality justify a software – also higher price? Should developed at the University of Adelaide – I schedule my casual workers to help me immediately recognises vulnerable blood vessels harvest in two weeks and alerts the surgeon.” or three? Our sensing technology enables these decisions to be According to McLaughlin, the University’s Chair of Biophotonics, the “smart needle” made with confidence, technology recently demonstrated its life-saving potential in a pilot clinical trial. “We based on real-time data, tested the smart needle with 12 patients without disturbing undergoing neurosurgery and were able to detect when a blood vessel was next to the the product.” needle with a success rate of more than 90 per cent.”
Patented in the USA and under examination in Europe, the transformational technology will be manufactured in South Australia by spin-out company Miniprobes Pty Ltd, with McLaughlin a co-director. Not surprisingly, the company is receiving significant international interest. “Medical device manufacturers have been particularly enthusiastic about where else we can use this technology. For example, we’re now looking at using the smart needle to improve deep brain stimulation for treating Parkinson’s disease. “We’re also collaborating with Technical University Dresden to adapt the core technology into a new tool to reduce the need for dental X-rays.”
Laser-sensing technology to transform food, agriculture Reinforcing light’s versatility as a measurement tool, biophotonics research at the University of Adelaide is now also enabling non-destructive wine, crop and produce testing. A team led by Professor Mark Hutchinson is adapting spectralchange-sensing optic-fibre-based technology to monitor food quality and condition in real time, with no product damage or loss.
The University of Adelaide team, together with local entrepreneurs, is currently collaborating with prominent Australian winery Yalumba to test their sensors in red and white wine. “We have our light sources and fibres dangling in several barrels, measuring what’s happening as the wine ferments.” The potential to expand this process throughout entire wineries, adds Hutchinson, holds great promise. “Typically, only a small number of barrels are ever actually sampled to test wine maturation. But if winemakers knew exactly what every single barrel was doing in their vintage they could make big advances in production efficiency and quality.
Enabling ultra-precise gravitational-wave measurement Proving gravitational waves’ existence has been hailed as the most important scientific discovery of our lifetimes. When the twin US LIGO (Laser Interferometer GravitationalWave Observatory) detectors simultaneously moved just a billionth of a billionth of a metre in September 2015, humanity gained a fundamentally new “sense” with which to observe the cosmos; and the University of Adelaide had played a critical role. The University developed the ultra-highprecision optical sensors needed to correct distortion in the LIGO detectors’ laser beams, which ultimately enabled the unprecedented sensitivity required to detect such minute signals. Known as “Hartmann wavefront sensors”, the world-leading technology improved existing sensors’ sensitivity by around a staggering 3000 per cent. It’s also used in Europe’s Advanced Virgo Gravitational-Wave Observatory. Now, according to lead researcher Associate Professor Peter Veitch, it’s being taken to the next level. “We’re currently developing new ‘adaptive optics’ systems with advanced optical diagnostics,” he says. “They’ll enable the LIGO and Virgo lasers’ wavefronts to be constantly monitored and adjusted during use, which will significantly increase detection rates and fidelity.” Even this, however, is only a stepping stone. The University of Adelaide team is already conceiving next-generation detectors. “We’re exploring technology for the next generation of detectors that will use silicon test-mass mirrors cooled to about minus 150oC,” explains Veitch. “We think this could allow detectors to routinely observe gravitational waves from coalescing black holes and neutron stars, and search the universe for previously undetectable new sources.”
“Our sensing technology has the capacity to scale to that size without requiring the producer to invest in, or find space for, any additional facilities.” Another trial is underway at an abattoir, for the first time measuring meat’s quality as carcasses pass by at line-speed. “This makes it possible to objectively assess meat against regulatory grading schedules, such as Meat Standards Australia’s, which directly affect how meat is promoted and priced. In future that grading process could be fully automated.”
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