The first reliable technique for focusing ultrasound waves inside the skull could lead to a non-invasive treatment for brain tumours. Greg Clement and Kullervo Hynynen of Harvard Medical School in the US used computed tomography to control an array of 320 ultrasound transmitters, which focuses the waves at target locations inside the skull. The researchers hit their targets to within a millimetre – an achievement that overcomes a major hurdle in the development of ultrasound treatments for brain surgery (G Clement and K Hynynen 2002 Phys. Med. Biol. 47 1219).
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