Kwon
2011-06-15, 15:21
http://www.crazyengineers.com/boston-electric-engineers-create-living-lasers-from-human-cells-485/
http://www.crazyengineers.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Living-Lasers.jpg
"Scientists at the Harvard Medical School have collaborated with a team of researchers at the Massachusetts General Hospital to develop lasers using human cells.
Yes, though it sounds freaky, it is very real.
The Boston scientists have devised a way to generate cells that will act like laser diodes!
The reason that inspired these scholars to invent such a thing was that it was quite difficult to get visible or infrared light inside and out of the human body.
This led to many limitations and hindrances in various applications of biological imaging. So the scientists thought that why don’t we culture cells in the human body that will act as the light source themselves!
With this objective in minds of the Boston engineers as well as the omnipotent King Grub, the innovative technique got developed.
The basic components of an electronic laser are a light source, an amplifier, etc. The same list is also present in these new living lasers.
The team genetically altered human liver cells into cells that emit green fluorescent proteins.
These cells are actually the gain media that amplify the incident light energy. The researchers used a microscope to provide light energy to the cells in the test tube so that the light gets amplified. The light rays undergo total internal reflections and bounce off repeatedly against the cell walls.
The photons gain sufficiently large amounts of energy during this time and finally released as a strong coherent laser beam. For travelling greater distances, the light must have sufficient energy.
This is accomplished by keeping the cells inside a minuscule, cell shaped biocompatible optical cavity."
http://www.crazyengineers.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Living-Lasers.jpg
"Scientists at the Harvard Medical School have collaborated with a team of researchers at the Massachusetts General Hospital to develop lasers using human cells.
Yes, though it sounds freaky, it is very real.
The Boston scientists have devised a way to generate cells that will act like laser diodes!
The reason that inspired these scholars to invent such a thing was that it was quite difficult to get visible or infrared light inside and out of the human body.
This led to many limitations and hindrances in various applications of biological imaging. So the scientists thought that why don’t we culture cells in the human body that will act as the light source themselves!
With this objective in minds of the Boston engineers as well as the omnipotent King Grub, the innovative technique got developed.
The basic components of an electronic laser are a light source, an amplifier, etc. The same list is also present in these new living lasers.
The team genetically altered human liver cells into cells that emit green fluorescent proteins.
These cells are actually the gain media that amplify the incident light energy. The researchers used a microscope to provide light energy to the cells in the test tube so that the light gets amplified. The light rays undergo total internal reflections and bounce off repeatedly against the cell walls.
The photons gain sufficiently large amounts of energy during this time and finally released as a strong coherent laser beam. For travelling greater distances, the light must have sufficient energy.
This is accomplished by keeping the cells inside a minuscule, cell shaped biocompatible optical cavity."