Using novel voltage-sensitive nanoparticles, University of Michigan researchers have found electric fields inside cells as strong as those produced in lightning bolts.

Previously, it has only been possible to measure electric fields across cell membranes, not within the main bulk of cells.

Testing these nanoparticles in the internal fluid of brain-cancer cells, researchers found electric fields as strong as 15 million volts per meter, perhaps five times stronger than the field found in a lightning bolt.

Researchers hope to learn about disease states such as cancer by studying these electric fields.