Silver Medal

The metal silver has been hailed for its medicinal properties for more than two thousand years. A century ago surgeons used silver thread for sewing up wounds, and silver solutions were widely used as disinfectants before antibiotics were invented. Now this precious metal is lending its weight to sticking plasters. Under a high-powered scanning electron microscope, a plaster is revealed as a tangled web of fibres, bound together by a non-stick plastic mesh. The fibres themselves shimmer with silver, which is thought to help with healing. But although more manufacturers are putting silver in plasters and other wound dressings, there isn't a lot of strong evidence to show that it has much of an effect – although it might be helpful for smaller cuts and scrapes or chronic wounds that don't heal properly. Appropriately, this picture won a silver medal in the recent International Images for Science competition. Sterling stuff!

Written by Kat Arney

Kat Arney

Writer

Dr Kat Arney is an award-winning science writer, broadcaster and public speaker, and is the founder and Creative Director of First Create The Media.

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• Image by Steve Gschmeissner
• This image is included in the International Images for Science 2015 exhibition, organised by the Royal Photographic Society and supported by Siemens as part of the Curiosity Project.
• Copyright held by the photographer