For many years, doctors and technicians who performed medical ultrasound procedures viewed bubbles with wary concern. The phenomenon of cavitation—the formation and collapse of tiny gas bubbles due to changes in pressure—was considered an undesirable and largely uncontrollable side effect. But in 2001, researchers at the University of Michigan began exploring ways to harness the phenomenon for the destruction of cancerous tumors and other problematic tissue.
The trouble was, creating and controlling…
