MINIATURE sonic booms can kill deadly microbes. Since the 1980s, doctors have used acoustic shock waves to destroy kidney stones and gallstones. Curiously, the treatments also seemed to reduce kidney infections.
Now physicist Achim Loske of the National Autonomous University in Mexico and colleagues have found that shock waves rip bacteria apart by creating tiny, rapidly collapsing bubbles that spit out fountains of fluid at up to 1440 kilometres per hour, and intense bursts of light.
The scientists suggest shock waves could be used to treat difficult chronic infections such as those affecting bone, or to sterilise drinks such as…
