how do you detect disease from sliver shapes

Question: how do you detect disease from sliver shapes
- Keywords:
  disease,
  sliver,
  work
Asked by benhugman to Adam on 11 Nov 2013.
- Adam Murphy answered on 11 Nov 2013:
  
  Hey Ben, great question
  
  There an effect I work with called Surface Plasmon Resonance (which is a name I love)
  
  In most elements, electrons fly around the atoms, but in metals, they just swim around on the surface, like confused swimmers!
  
  When light hits a nanoscale film of gold or silver just right; the right angle, the right colour, waving in the right direction, the electrons in the film can absorb the light completely It’s really weird. Usually, you need a big whirry machine and prisms to make it work, but you can make it easier if you use my shapes!
  
  The cool thing is if you put a glowing molecule near these shapes after they’ve stolen some light, they make each one up to 30 times brighter. We use glowing molecules to look for disease by attaching them to chemicals that are only in blood if you have a certain disease, so the more glow, the more disease. If each glowing molecule is 30 times brighter, you can detect with 30 times less of the disease chemical, which is a much earlier stage of the disease.
  
  I hope that all makes sense and thank you for your question!

Question: how do you detect disease from sliver shapes