Medicine: The Anti-Social Cells

Scientists have long known that there is some electrical activity in the body, and that a change in the normal action may be a warning of disease. The knowledge has been used to diagnose ailments of the heart (by electrocardiograph) and of the brain (by electroencephalograph). Could the same principle be applied to cancer?

Fifteen years ago, Yale Anatomist Harold Saxton Burr and New York University Gynecologist Louis Langman began to experiment with electrical tests for cancer. They had Yale Physicist Cecil T. Lane build a special microvoltmeter, which measures electrical potentials in...

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