SAVE MONEY ON TRAVEL DEALS

The Pennsylvania State University research engineers said such fluidic lenses can be used for many applications, such as counting cells, evaluating molecules or creating on-chip optical tweezers. The lenses might also provide imaging in medical devices, eliminating the necessity of moving the tip of a probe, they added.

The researchers, led by Assistant Professor Tony Jun Huang, said conventional, fixed focal length lenses can focus light at only one distance and the entire lens must move to focus on an object or to change the direction of the light. Fluidic lenses, however, can change focal length or direction in less than a second while remaining in the same place.

"We use water and a calcium chloride solution because they are readily available and safe and their optical properties have been well characterized", said Huang.

The research that included graduate students Sz-Chin Lin, Michael Lapsley, Jinjie Shi, Bala Juluri and Xiaole Mao was reported in a recent issue of the journal Lab on a Chip.

 BREAKING STORIES

Philadelphia court prepares for overflow crowd in Oprah trial

Songbirds may help solve speech disorders

Chickens found wandering Pittsburgh campus

Sun-Earth day to be marked by NASA webcast

Scientist urges better cancer cell tests

Pa. Muslim group condemns book series

2010 energy prize competition begins

Date set for Oprah defamation trial

One dead in Pennsylvania train collision

NWS expects flooding in Pa, W.Va.

Jihad Jane had troubled past, records show

Investigators to probe Roethlisberger case

Target sued over trunk used as toy box

Bank sued over 'invasive' repossession

Musk Oxen decline due to climate change

Families sue serial killer for damages

Study looks at nanoplankton extinction

Oldest mammalian genome is sequenced

11 minutes enough to remember Westbrook's 8 years of brilliance

Feds investigate school's webcam policy