Exploring the links between sonochemistry and sonomechanobiology

Sonomechanobiology concerns the ways in which vibrational energy can stimulate biological cells. It is a multi-disciplinary subject involving contributions from fields including chemistry, food science, microbiology, medicine and physics. Early studies of the effects of ultrasound on living tissue can be traced back to the 1920's but in those days, without the aid of modern specialised equipment, detailed explanations were not possible. The more recent work on the stimulation of cells has been of particular interest to microbiologists and medical physicists while sonochemists have not really been involved. But sonochemistry has an important part to play in the developing subject of sonomechanobiology and this opinion paper will re-examine those early studies which can be considered to be precursors to both sonomechanobiology and sonochemistry.