Fundamental physical principles of medical imaging and their impact on microbial systems

Integrative Interdisciplinary science and technological innovation Medical imaging and microbiology offer a novel space of exploration and development. The retrieval of microbial data through medical imaging has implication on a wide range of disciplines since it enables microbiologists to use the available clinical data. Taking a physics-based take on physical microbiology enhances comprehension of the involved physical processes and therefore new possibilities of leveraging on the understanding of microbials. In this paper, the personal imaging modalities that are the most common in medical practice have been reviewed and the imaging physics as well as the biological consequences on microbial systems are discussed. These modalities act upon electromagnetic and mechanical wave on a scale of dimensions that have a huge influence on the physical and biological information that they transmit. The debate is directed at the physical basis of the existing and potential imaging-based techniques to deduce the existence, identity and undertakings of microbes in relation to the health of a human being.