Moving away from physical and towards photonic!
Lasers have been used for everything from measuring distances, blowing up entire planets or even just to entertain your cat - but they haven't been used for anything inherently constructive until just now.
A Hospital in Massachusetts (located in America no less, birthplace of Dr Evil) has been playing around with the concept of using a laser to heal incisions and other superficial wounds.
Heat has long been used to cauterise wounds, but this technique doesn't use the heat in a laser - it uses the light, or photons:
The team took advantage of the fact that a number of dyes are activated in the presence of light. In the case of Rose Bengal--a stain used in just about every ophthalmologist's office to detect corneal lesions--the researchers believe that light helps transfer electrons between the dye molecule and collagen, the major structural component of tissue. This produces highly reactive free radicals that cause the molecular chains of collagen to chemically bond to each other, or "cross-link." Paint two sides of a wound with Rose Bengal, illuminate it with intense light, and the sides will knit themselves back together. "We call this nano suturing," Kochevar says, "because what you're doing is linking together the little collagen fibers. It's way beyond anything that a thread of any kind can do."
Apart from being a fascinating application of tech, and not mentioning our joy that they picked a green laser, this is quite a novel way of using existing gear in an all-new way.
Could this bring about healing phasers in the future? We'd like to think so, but until then head over to Technology Review to grab the full story on this interesting process.
Issue: 133 | February, 2012