Gold nanoparticles kill cancer—but not as thought

Gold particles of the size of billionths of a meter are lethal to cancer cells. This fact has been known for a long time, as has a simple correlation: The smaller the nanoparticles used to fight the cancer cells, the faster they die. However, a more interesting, more complex picture of these interactions is emerging from the latest research, conducted at the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences, using a novel microscopic technique.