A new kind of ‘camera’ is poking at the invisible world of the human body – and it’s made from the same weird crystals that once shook up solar energy. Researchers at Northwestern University and Soochow University have built the first perovskite-based gamma-ray detector that actually works for nuclear medicine imaging, like SPECT scans. This hack is unusual because it takes a once-experimental lab material and shows it can replace multimillion-dollar detectors in real-world hospitals.
Current medical scanners rely on CZT or NaI detectors. CZT is pricey and cracks like ice on a frozen lake. NaI is cheaper, but fuzzy – like photographing a cat through steamed-up glass. Perovskites, however, are easier to grow, cheaper to process, and now proven to detect single photons with record-breaking precision. The team pixelated their crystal like a smartphone camera sensor and pulled crisp 3D images out of faint radiation traces. The payoff: sharper scans, lower radiation doses, and tech that could spread beyond rich clinics.
Perovskite was once typecast as a ‘solar cell wonder,’ but now it’s mutating into a disruptive medical eye. A hack in the truest sense: re-purposing physics for life-saving clarity.
Inspiration for the Component Abuse Challenge announced a short while ago?
I can hardly wait for all the perovskite technology to finally filter down to us hobbyists. Soon, please?
It’s a CsPbBr3 perovskite, which from what I can tell seems to be one that’s also promising for solar cell and quantum dot applications. (I mention because I had to dig all the way to the journal article to find that out. The details are well outside my area of expertise, but at least it’s open access!)
I’m still annoyead at whichever geologists/chemists decided that everything with a similar crystal structure to the Perovskite (CaTiO3) could also just be called Perovskite, but it’s kind of an honored tradition in the fields, I guess (cough cough oxidation reactions cough cough)
I agree – perovskoid would be my favorite term.
What about perovskish? Or perovskimilar? Or perovskicious? Or perovskibidi?
Oh, come on, no explanation whatsoever? Not everyone has PhD in nuclear physics. I guess I’m spoiled by the “old generation” of HaD authors who’d at least put the full name of the compound in the brackets.
+1
I suspect the writer wanted to stay within the 200 word limit. Enough to spoke interest for those who grasp the subject, way to less to be informative. Regarding my personal knowledge, I’m only aware of “Swarovski” and “The dark crystal”, so I guess this article isn’t for me anyway. Regarding “The dark crystal”, I’ve seen the movie, it was interesting in many ways then a few years ago, I saw the series on Netflix (The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance) wow… that was awesome. The characters really come to life in that series, sure in a TV-series is plenty of time to expand the story line, but then again, the story is nicely detailed too. Anyway, I can recommend the series for everyone who likes the Jim Henson legacy, you don’t have to be a Muppet of fantasy fan to like this, but it sure does help. There was some talk about a second season of The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, but I’m still waiting. Considering the quality of the series I suspect it had costs a lot of money to make this, so I understand that Netflix could not or would not afford/invest in another season. Sure the fans would like a second season, but how does that relate to the average Netflix serie that draws tripple the viewers and cost only a tenth.
Looking at what I’ve typed so far, I’ve seem to have passed the word count of the article, interesting that a simple comment can take up more space than the article itself and I did not even mention the topic. Anyway, The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, it’s worth a watch.
There is no “word limit”, either max or min. You made this up yourself?
I know, but considering it was very close to it, it made me wonder. Anyway, plenty of articles here on Hackaday are much longer and in many ways more in depth or explanatory regarding the subject. I guess we are spoiled in some way, so that if a very small article does come along and is about a groundbreaking discovery/invention people will get confused and might experience a sense of FOMO (fear of missing out).
And although, The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, is not related to this item, it sure is worth a watch, but again I digress.
Can’t blame you for wanting to know more about scintillation crystals! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scintillator
But yeah. Sodium iodide and cadmium zinc telluride.
Sorry if it came out harsh, I forgot the usual emoticon. The problem is that neither was easy to find. Googling for “CZT” resulted in lots of Mitsubishi Colt-related pages and as for “NAL”, well, let’s just say that the font didn’t help, I should have copy-pasted it instead.
So yeah, I really wanted to know more about scintillation crystals ;-)
A deeper explanation would require a few more words in the prompt, plus additional proofreading from the person submitting the AI’s output.
^ this, I thought it was a golden rule of writing that you explain an acronym on first use.
“The payoff: sharper scans, lower radiation doses, and tech that could spread beyond rich clinics.”
Just in time for 2026.