Shedding light on baby brain injury @ British Science Festival

We are very proud to have had our researcher Dr. Gemma Bale share how our group uses red and infra-red light to monitor baby brains and give hope to the lives of affected families. Speaking at the British Science Festival in Hull on 13 September, Dr. Bale shared the science behind shining light into the skull of babies, along with the clinical applications and dramatic differences this technology has brought along.

While passing around coloured LEDs to the audience and getting them to shine them at their fingertips, Gemma proved that humans are see-through under certain colours of light. A brave volunteer also came up onto stage to get her brain scanned, and her brain oxygenation and metabolism were projected onto the podium screen – at real time speed! The atmosphere was filled with excitement and promising eyes, as everyone was curious about what the future holds for near infra-red spectroscopy.

After gathering feedback, it is great to know that the audience really enjoyed the talk, with 80% of the listeners rating the talk as “Excellent”, while the other 20% rating it “Good”. The talk gave the audience insight on how we use Near Infrared Technology in our equipment, and overall increased their interest in science.