Until recently, the main way to distinguish a cancer cell from a normal healthy cell was by its appearance. Magnified many hundreds or thousands of times under a light microscope, a cell can be examined by pathologists experienced in recognising and characterising structural anomalies. But in recent years an additional technique for screening cancer cells has begun to emerge, known as Fourier transform Infra Red (or FT-IR) spectroscopy.
FT-IR spectroscopy uses electromagnetic radiation of wavelengths longer than visible light (that is from approximately 0.7) and shorter than microwaves (up to around 1000 micrometers). This radiation is ?fired? at the substance being investigated. When absorbed by that substance, the energy causes its constituent molecules to vibrate and rotate. This effect, when collected and mathematically analysed - using the so-called ?Fourier transform? function - yields a ?spectrum? of peaks and troughs, the height and position of which reveal the molecular structure and composition of the substance being studied.
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