Exposing cells noninvasively to an extremely powerful electric field for nanoseconds might one day be used to treat cancer, speed up healing or tackle obesity.

Teams led by Vernier, Karl Schoenbach of Old Dominion University and Stephen Beebe of Eastern Virginia Medical School, both in Norfolk, Virginia, have shown that “nanopulsing” with electric fields with gradients of tens of megavolts per meter, applied for nanoseconds, can kill tumor cells in culture and trigger suicide in the cells that give rise to fat cells, according to an article in the February 7, 2004 issue of New Scientist.