Sending cancer a signal

Kanzius said he might be able to use nanoparticles, which are so small that 75,000 to 100,000 lined up side by side equal the width of a strand of human hair. He thought nanoparticles could potentially be directed to travel through the bloodstream and stick only to cancer cells -- a patient would swallow a pill or take a shot containing them. But would they burn?

Kanzius needed to get his hands on some nanoparticles.

Curley knew that Nobel Prize-winning chemist Richard Smalley, who specialized in nanoscience, was also being treated for cancer at M.D. Anderson. Curley got in touch with Smalley and explained Kanzius' theory.

Smalley did not think the nanoparticles would burn but agreed to give Curley two vials.

In June 2005, Curley met with Kanzius and Marianne. He pulled the vials of nanoparticles out of his suit jacket pocket, and Kanzius placed them in the radio field of his machine and turned it on.

They burned.

Marianne captured that day in her journal:

"John asked, 'Is this what you expected?' For the first time in my life, I realized that a smile starts behind the eyes before it starts at the mouth, for Steve responded, 'This is much more than I expected.' I watched his smile engulf his entire face."

Marianne finally realized: "Could what John's working on be real?" Curley phoned Smalley to tell him the news.

He remembered Smalley's response: "Holy God."

Smalley asked his colleagues at Rice University to work with Curley's team at M.D. Anderson on the project.

Shortly before he died in October 2005, Smalley made a final request to Curley, who would not forget his words: "Nothing has the potential to help people, to help patients, more than this. You have to promise me to keep doing this work."

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With the project moving along, Kanzius invited scholars, politicians and scientists to Erie for demonstrations. This spring, a Canadian health minister had a random thought, after noticing how quickly condensation formed on the test tube walls during the process: With the world's need for fresh water, he asked Kanzius, could his machine be used to desalinate water?

A few weeks later, Kanzius tried to heat and distill water mixed with Morton's salt in a test tube, which he placed into his generator. He turned on the radio frequencies and held a match to the salt water.

Flames erupted.