Crystals that can confine both light and vibrations could create better biosensors.The crystal traps vibrations and light in the same place.Eichenfield M., et al. Light and mechanical vibrations have been imprisoned together for the first time ever in the same place. An artificial crystal that traps both could lead to ultra-sensitive biosensors, create an interface for devices on a chip and provide an elegant cooling mechanism to help test quantum limits. The communications industry has long used specially patterned materials, called photonic crystals, to guide light through optical fibres. Similar structures, known as phononic crystals, manipulate mechanical vibrations and are...