High-speed Holograms and Biophysics

Event details

PhysSoc public lecture

Optical microscopes have been in use for over 350 years, but have gained a new lease of life thanks to modern digital cameras and computing power.  Holographic microscopy is an example of a new microscopy technique enabled by these advances.  Using a modern camera and a holographic microscope, we can image a sample in three dimensions, recording thousands of volumes per second.  This method is useful for many applications in biological physics, particularly for studying the fluid mechanics of fast-moving objects like bacteria, or medically relevant microorganisms like malaria parasites.  I will give a beginner’s guide to holography, showing how to record a hologram, and how to play it back.  I’ll also show some short 3D movies to give an overview of some of the biophysical applications that I’m working on at the moment: understanding how malaria parasites move, and how swimming bacteria navigate in the wild.