A single living cell has been coaxed into producing laser light, researchers report in Nature Photonics.
The technique starts by engineering a cell that can produce a light-emitting protein that was first obtained from glowing jellyfish.
Flooding the resulting cells with weak blue light causes them to emit directed, green laser light.
The work may have applications in improved microscope imaging and light-based therapies.
Laser light differs from normal light in that it is of a narrow band of colours, with the light waves all oscillating together in synchrony.
Most modern forms use carefully engineered solid materials to produce lasers in everything from supermarket scanners to DVD players to industrial robots.
The new work, by Malte Gather and Seok Hyun Yun at the Wellman Center for Photomedicine at Massachusetts General Hospital in the US, marks the first time the phenomenon has been seen in a living system.
The pair used green fluorescent protein (GFP) as the laser's "gain medium", where light amplification takes place.
GFP is a well-studied molecule, first isolated from jellyfish, that has revolutionised biology by acting as a custom-made "torch" that can light up living systems on command.
In the new work, cells derived from human kidney cells were genetically engineered to produce GFP.
Bathed in light
The cells were then placed one at a time between two tiny mirrors, just 20 millionths of a metre across, which acted as the "laser cavity" in which light could bounce many times through the cell.
Upon bathing the cell with blue light, it could be seen to emit directed and intense green laser light.
The cells remained alive throughout and after the process. The authors note in an accompanying interview in the journal that the living system is a "self-healing" laser; if the light-emitting proteins are destroyed in the process, the cell will simply produce more.
"In cellular sensing, we may be able to detect intracellular processes with unprecedented sensitivity," they said.
"For light-based therapeutics, diagnosis and imaging, people think about how to deliver emission from an external laser source deep into tissue. Now we can approach this problem in another way: by amplifying light in the tissue (itself)."
Too cool not to post here.
Zor
HAIL ZOR!WE'LL BLOW UP THE OCEAN!
Heros of Cybertron-HAB-Keeper of the Vicious pit of Allosauruses-King Leighton-I, United Kingdom of Zoria: SD.net World/Tsar Mikhail-I of the Red Tsardom: SD.net Kingdoms WHEN ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE ON EARTH, ALL EARTH BREAKS LOOSE ON HELL Terran Sphere The Art of Zor
Fucking awesome. Although they are just the lasing material, while the power to do the Lazor light actually comes from something else. Still no X-men laser, but something cool nontheless.
Another article says also this Not only did the cell-based device produce pulses of laser light [but] the researchers also found that the spherical shape of the cell itself acted as a lens, refocusing the light and inducing emission of laser light at lower energy levels ... The cells used in the device survived the lasing process and were able to continue producing hundreds of pulses of laser light.
"The ability to generate laser light from a biocompatible source placed inside a patient could be useful," comments Yun, though at the moment he is thinking more of medical imaging and such like as opposed to the ability to emit deadly energy rays from one's eyes or similar.
Gather, on the other hand, is thinking more of making biological machinery that might one day let you plug an optical fibre straight into your brain, or similar.
"One of our long-term goals will be finding ways to bring optical communications and computing, currently done with inanimate electronic devices, into the realm of biotechnology," explains the scientist. "That could be particularly useful in projects requiring the interfacing of electronics with biological organisms."
This is the paper, that I cannot have access to. Anyone that can feel free to tell something more.
I'm nobody. Nobody at all. But the secrets of the universe don't mind. They reveal themselves to nobodies who care. -- Stereotypical spacecraft are pressurized. Less realistic spacecraft are pressurized to hold breathing atmosphere. Realistic spacecraft are pressurized because they are flying propellant tanks. -Isaac Kuo -- Good art has function as well as form. I hesitate to spend more than $50 on decorations of any kind unless they can be used to pummel an intruder into submission. -Sriad
Btw, GFP (aka green fluorescent protein) the main responsible of the laser emission here, is more or less a staple in biotech research, since it can be linked to specific antibodies that then go attach themselves to the structures you wanna look at. And lights it up when excited by light of specific wavelenght in a fluorescence microscope.
Other proteins (technically mutated GFPs) emit light at different wavelenghts, in any colour you want.
And an image or another. To show the colours.
I'm nobody. Nobody at all. But the secrets of the universe don't mind. They reveal themselves to nobodies who care. -- Stereotypical spacecraft are pressurized. Less realistic spacecraft are pressurized to hold breathing atmosphere. Realistic spacecraft are pressurized because they are flying propellant tanks. -Isaac Kuo -- Good art has function as well as form. I hesitate to spend more than $50 on decorations of any kind unless they can be used to pummel an intruder into submission. -Sriad
I wonder what uses could be found for these cells? I could possibly see them being used to make even cooler glow in the dark pets, or maybe combine them with phosphorescence and make disco fish or something, but I'm not seeing the practical uses. Still, it's damned cool science.
School requires more work than I remember it taking...
Norade wrote:I wonder what uses could be found for these cells? I could possibly see them being used to make even cooler glow in the dark pets, or maybe combine them with phosphorescence and make disco fish or something, but I'm not seeing the practical uses. Still, it's damned cool science.
"Now let us be clear, my friends. The fruits of our science that you receive and the many millions of benefits that justify them, are a gift. Be grateful. Or be silent." -Modified Quote
Norade wrote:I wonder what uses could be found for these cells?
You must have missed the second post, where I link another article where the guys pulling off this trick say their goals. Summarized below.
"generate laser light from a biocompatible source placed inside a patient could be useful," (medical imaging)
"ways to bring optical communications and computing, currently done with inanimate electronic devices, into the realm of biotechnology, that could be particularly useful in projects requiring the interfacing of electronics with biological organisms."
The former is relatively short-term, the latter is long-term, but quite a bit cooler.
I'm nobody. Nobody at all. But the secrets of the universe don't mind. They reveal themselves to nobodies who care. -- Stereotypical spacecraft are pressurized. Less realistic spacecraft are pressurized to hold breathing atmosphere. Realistic spacecraft are pressurized because they are flying propellant tanks. -Isaac Kuo -- Good art has function as well as form. I hesitate to spend more than $50 on decorations of any kind unless they can be used to pummel an intruder into submission. -Sriad
Norade wrote:I wonder what uses could be found for these cells?
You must have missed the second post, where I link another article where the guys pulling off this trick say their goals. Summarized below.
"generate laser light from a biocompatible source placed inside a patient could be useful," (medical imaging)
"ways to bring optical communications and computing, currently done with inanimate electronic devices, into the realm of biotechnology, that could be particularly useful in projects requiring the interfacing of electronics with biological organisms."
The former is relatively short-term, the latter is long-term, but quite a bit cooler.
I didn't bother with the links, but that stuff sounds like it could be worth looking into.
School requires more work than I remember it taking...
We are now that much closer to Cylons, light up orgasm spines for everybody
More so seriously, the therapeutic potential seems quite interesting. NASA showed the benefits of laser light on wound healing, having some modified platlets floating about in the body that would bathe any wound in light to help promote healing would be kinda cool.
I had to blink twice when I read the title. Very cool research.
Norade wrote:I wonder what uses could be found for these cells? I could possibly see them being used to make even cooler glow in the dark pets, or maybe combine them with phosphorescence and make disco fish or something, but I'm not seeing the practical uses.
Or perhaps if the lasers could be made IR they could replace the TV remote with the IR-emiting finger. But laser sharks would be infinitely more awesome.
Hmmm... actually, can they be made to emit IR? The remote-control finger would be sort of useful, since it means you are now a walking talking universal remote, given mountains of R&D of course.
Win
Perhaps they could be used as a kind of underwater lighting. Also, I wonder how bright they'll be able to make them, what the maximum brightness they could coax out of them...
Yeah, I've always taken the subtext of the Birther movement to be, "The rules don't count here! This is different! HE'S BLACK! BLACK, I SAY! ARE YOU ALL BLIND!?
- Raw Shark
Destiny and fate are for those too weak to forge their own futures. Where we are 'supposed' to be is irrelevent.
Win
Perhaps they could be used as a kind of underwater lighting. Also, I wonder how bright they'll be able to make them, what the maximum brightness they could coax out of them...
No idea, but using not horrifying looking fish as a nightlight would be cool as all hell.
School requires more work than I remember it taking...
