4. A Pacemaker
Researchers at Case Western Reserve University and Vanderbilt University have found out that lasers could potentially be used to keep a heart beat steady, basically acting as a pacemaker.
Scientists use lasers to heat the heart cells, forcing them to contract by way of an ion channel. They figured this out by taking a quail egg and plugging a fiber optic cable into the developing heart. They then pumped short laser bursts through the cable and into the heart, heating it up and forcing it to contract. The lasers were then able to regulate the heart rate according to how often the pulses were sent, effectively regulating them better than a regular pacemaker. The downside? Several animals involved in the testing were killed.
3. Brain Tumor Cooker
Some cancers need a little stronger treatment than a laser beam into their RNA, so doctors at Washington University have provided the next best thing – lasers directly into the cancerous tumor itself. The technique was demonstrated in an operation on a patient which involved drilling a hole into the skull of the laser. Making use of MRI technology, they navigated around the complex maze that is the brain until the cancer is located. A laser probe (kind of like what aliens do) is then inserted into the hole, with the laser coming out at a 90-degree angle. The laser beam is then used to heat the cancerous cells up to 60 degrees, essentially taking them past the viability point and killing them.
2. A Diamond Floater
Lasers can even make diamonds ignore the rules of gravity and shun Mother Earth. A research team at the University of Rochester made use of impure diamonds and laser beams to perform science magic. Generally, light (which is made up of millions of tiny particles) exerts force on objects (just like any other object made out of particles), but is generally too small to have an effect. The researchers made a cloud formed out of nanometers of an impure diamond — that is, one filled with little impurities like nitrogen vacancies. Due to the size of the diamonds, the lasers were able to levitate the individual mini diamonds.
This wasn’t done just because scientists have too much time — this research allows them to find out more about the nature of light and particles which will help us create better technology in future. Also, it helped us find out that hitting diamonds with lasers also makes them glow, so there’s that too.
1. Vaccines
Vaccinations are generally awkward affairs, filled with painful pins and needles. In the future however, they could be filled with nothing more than little bursts of light burning holes into your cells.
Scientists at Georgia Tech are pioneering the technique, which involves using a laser to open up a cell, delivering a payload in the form of a molecule, and sealing the cell back within a split second. If that sounds better and more efficient than an injection to you, then you’re scientifically minded. It also targets infections which would be harder, or even impossible, to reach with conventional vaccines, like some viruses which target the inside of cells.
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