Nanotube cancer treatment research. Nanotube structures designed for medical research including cancer treatments. The images show nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes, 50 nanometres in diameter and 500-1000 nanometres in length, to which 10-nanometre spherical gold particles have been linked. The nanotubes can be detected in the body by using X-rays and heat produced by lasers. This may allow better diagnosis and more accurate intervention in cases of cancers that are inaccessible to current surgical techniques. This work was carried out by researchers at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine, USA. Image produced in 2013.