Materials scientist and physicist Guosong Hong is an expert in getting materials to do remarkable things.

Recently, he and collaborators used a common food dye found in snack chips to turn living tissue transparent, allowing light to penetrate through skin and muscle. Hong is now working to realize a new age of medical imaging that lets doctors see deep into the body – without surgery. It’s a miracle of physics but it could change medicine, Hong tells host Russ Altman on the latest episode of Stanford Engineering’s The Future of Everything podcast.