Shaking a virus to death is not a new idea. Arizona State University physicist Kong-Thon Tsen, who pioneered the practice, conducted eight peer-reviewed studies in 2006 and 2007 demonstrating that vibrations can deactivate a number of viruses. But Tsen's latest work may have found a way to destroy HIV, just by hitting the right note. In much the same way that opera singers use sqund waves to shatter glass, laser light has shown considerable potential for killing viruses such as the tobacco necrosis virus and M13 bacteriophages. Like a wineglass, a virus's outer shell-known as a capsid-has an intrinsic frequency of vibration. Tsen uses a near-infrared laser to excite the target's outer shell and spur vibrations powerful enough to rupture the capsid.
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