A team of researchers at the University of Glasgow recently proved that a beam of light can travel the entire span of an adult human head.

The team used high-powered computer models and extremely sensitive light detectors, shining the light into one side of the head and picking it up on the other side. This was once thought to be impossible.

The adult head is thick and packed with tissue that usually scatters or absorbs light, but with the right conditions (fair skin, no hair and a little patience), photons made the full 15.5 centimeter journey.

This is important because it could lead to non-invasive ways to observe deeper areas of the brain. Current tools like fNIRs can only reach the surface level and large, expensive equipment like MRI machines are required for this kind of brain inspection.

This could mean life-threatening conditions like brain bleeds or tumors may one day be identified without invasive surgeries or large-scale equipment.

It’s still early days, but the faint signal indicates that next-gen brain scans using only light may one day be in the cards.

The study was published in Neurophotonics.

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