Quantum dots - small semiconducting nanocrystals - can produce a rainbow of colors depending on their size.FLICKR, ARGONNE NATIONAL LABORATORY
THE DEVICE: Commercially available quantum dots are nano-scale semiconductors that shift color in response to changes in temperature. The dots have two layers—an inner cadmium selenide core, and an outer zinc sulfide shell. Being biocompatible, researchers have used quantum dots as an alternative to fluorescent dyes to label and track cellular components, primarily in vitro.
Now, taking advantage of the tiny quantum dots' sensitivity to temperature, Haw Yang at Princeton University and his colleagues at the University of California, Berkeley, are repurposing them as an array of thermometers to use inside cells. They inserted the dots into mouse fibroblasts and measured temperature changes in various parts of the cell as they adjusted the temperature.
“We were asking whether the intracellular temperature response is homogeneous or ...
