Comic book fans have long dreamed of emitting a powerful beam from their eyes like superhero Cyclops of the X-Men.Now that dream could one day become a reality after scientists this week announced they have created the world’s first ‘living laser’, a biological cell which is engineered to produce a laser beam.
A pioneering team used a cell from a human kidney which had been genetically engineered to produce light in the same way as a jellyfish and flooded it with blue light.
This caused a green laser to be beamed out of the other end that was visible to the human eye.
In the future ‘living lasers’ could be produced inside live animals which would give unprecedented detail on scanners.
They could also have applications for computing and electronics and one day allow doctors to treat cancers by lasering inside the body rather than from the outside.
Lasers have been around since the 1950s but have traditionally used two mirrors on either side of what is known as a gain medium, a mater
ial which amplifies light, such as a crystal.
ial which amplifies light, such as a crystal.An electrical discharge usually excites the molecules in the gain medium which fire out photons in random directions and are focused into a single point by the mirrors.
The new research replaced the usual material with a human kidney cell that had been injected with green fluorescent protein (GFP), the material which makes jellyfish light up. Read More
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