Solar Surgery

Chris writes "Scientists in Israel have developed a device based on a concave dish that intensifies sunlight by a factor of 15,000. By focusing this light into an optical fiber and delivering it to an operating theatre, the team says its solar-surgery setup promises to be a low-cost alternative to laser surgery." Everyone who used to operate on GI Joe figures with a magnifying glass is cheering for this to be commercially successful.

Comments

Re:Skin Cancer

[Bonker]

If I undestand correctly, (and physics majors please correct me) UV radition is not transmitted along with color light radiation when light is reflected (by most reflective materials). Instead, it's absorbed by the reflecting material and transferred into heat. Therefore, what reaches the patient has no damaging UV component.

Wavelengths

[barista]

The article was a little short on details. I work for some ophthalmologists, and they use different types of lasers for different purposes. The way it was explained to me, the main differences were in the wavelengths they use. Excimer lasers are good for LASIK and such, while argon or krypton lasers are used for retinal repairs. Carbon dioxide produces an infrared laser for photocoagulation or for cutting.

Since it's still in the nascent stage,it will be interesting to see what they eventually come up with, especially if they can isolate different wavelengths.

Re:Skin Cancer

[Xeriar]

There are type of glass that aren't transmittive very far into the UV spectrum. Many materials we think of as transparent are merely 'filters' for our own visual spectrum, like a red light filter, for example.

Re:Lighting your office

[mbessey]

Here's something close -Mark