Scientists Use Diaper Polymers to Swell Microscope Specimens

Sci-fi movies have shown us what it might be like to shrink down to the size of an ant, or to blow a grasshopper up to the size of a skyscraper. And while a shrink ray may never be a scientific reality, a team led by MIT’s Edward Boyden has actually found a way to expand biological tissue to several times its original size – giving researchers a more detailed look than ever at microscopic structures within the body. And as silly as it sounds, the substance they’ve used for this upsizing is the same polymer that makes baby diapers swell up when they get wet.