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

Mobile Surgery

[InnovATIONS]

It seems to me that the real importance of this is the ability to be able to have a mobile surgery suite that can be taken to places where reliable electrical power does not exist, or perhaps field surgical hospitals in disaster areas. And yes, that IS big news to the poster that suggested that this was somehow misdirected priorities.

Why not just use electricity

[dprice]

It is interesting to use concentrated sunlight for surgery, but electricity is still a more reliable way to generate light. I would imagine that some high intensity incandescent lights could be concentrated similar to sunlight, and woundn't be dependent on weather and the earth's rotation.

Where this technology might be useful is in remote areas where electricity is not available. But where electricity is plentiful, this technology seems more like a novelty, like "Sun Tea".

common sense?

[tomstdenis]

To all you lame yuppy idiots replying with "oh its cloudy" here are some questions you should have asked

1. What is the annual amount of sunshine where this is to be used? [hint: chances are its high]

2. What is the cost of this device and its use say versus the laser setup [hint: chances are their low] .........

Tom

Re:Low cost alternative?

[Acendreya]

They're not exactly talking about shipping this (after the obvious years of research ahead of it) to the Dr. Nicks of Springfield, USA--as the article stated, it's intended for third world countries, where people can't afford shoes, let alone high-tech medical care. The doctors in these areas are not necessarily any less skilled than the guy at your local hospital that charges a $150 consultation fee, they just have a sense of duty to *help* people as opposed to using their degrees to make wads of money. "...the something's connected to the...red thing...the red thing's connected to my...wrist watch...uh oh..."

High Availability Alternative

[Oculus Habent]

Consider the possibilities this brings to field surgery in wartime or in developing countries.

With this invention, certain surgeries that are not possible in areas without electricity or expensive equipment can be performed.

It's not as though they will be replacing equipment in hospitals in a town near you...

Boon for the third world... sorta

[Embedded Geek]

So, as I understand it, we're talking about a laser analoge that needs no electrical infrastructure, should require little or no maintenance, and should be relatively cheap to mass produce. For certain procedures, this will be a real boon for poor countries.

There are limits, though. The thing that a laser is real good for is high precision procedures (think Lasik) that will still require all the infrastructure to operate robotic machinery (computer, electrical power, etc.) Also, the big health issue in real poor countries is access to sanitation, trained health care workers, and vaccines (on that last, say what you will about Bill Gates, but he recognizes his philanthropy is better spent on vaccines than PDAs and gizmos for third world hospitals - the knee juerk techno solution I would've lunged at).

Still, this is a great development. Will it completely change health care in poor coutnries? No. But it is another (very useful) tool in the toolbox for health care in poor countries.

Re:Boon for the third world... sorta

[GigsVT]

Bill Gates, but he recognizes his philanthropy is better spent on vaccines [gatesfoundation.org]

God always warned about gifts from Satan.

In any case, Gates spends a few million a year on such charity endeavors. This is the equivalent to you or I spending about $3 a year on charity, scaling income and wealth down using a simple ratio.

Re:ouch

[Anonymous Coward]

Sure, just throw a filter on it. They are doing about 8w/mm^2; filtering is absorption of the unwanted spectrum; so whaddya gonna do with the heat?

The real way to do this is filter on the front end by "painting" (dying really) the dish. Moreover, you can always wack some of the spectrum by choice of fiber materials... plastic typically sucks large in the UV.

Re:Bad idea

[evilpenguin]

I'm afraid there are several special things about sunlight. One of them is that, like laser light, it is a coherent beam (all the rays are parallel). Actually, it isn't really, but we are so far from the sun, its rays are effectively parallel; the divergence is so small as to not matter. This allows the light to be concentrated and thus the power effectively amplified. You can't do this with light from other sources. That light scatters in all directions and thus a lens or mirror will deflect the light at various angles. You can't concentrate it at a point. That's the whole reason the laser was such an important invention.

On a totally different (but slightly relevant) subject: Does anyone else remember being subjected to a dopey little song in elementary school that began:

"The sun is a mass/of incandescent gas/a giant nuclear furnace..."

If you do remember a dopey little song like that, how does the rest of it go? (In case you are frightened of violating the DMCA, this would fall under fair use. If not, well, we could become a wonderful test case for the EFF or ACLU!).

Clever way to select the frequency of light

[bbc22405]

There are several ways to solve this, and one of them is extremely clever. Let the light pass though a lens (rather than strictly using mirrors for all your lenses). Different frequencies (colors) of light will refract slightly differently (well, the ones off-axis), unless you have chosen the lens material carefully to avoid this. (Yes, think of the pretty rainbow that a prism makes from sunlight.) These different colors will focus at different distances from that lens. By positioning the end of the optic fiber at different distances from the lens, you selectively pick up different wavelengths.

There was a Japanese company, which made (makes?) large sun-tracking Fresnel lenses, for placement on rooftops. At the focus of the lens, an optic fiber (maybe more of a light-pipe) collected the light, for piping into your building, so that you could have sunlight in your house. They took advantage of this spectrum-separating effect to exclude UV and IR as desired from the pipe.
(Those systems, although certainly quite a fine nerd-toy, were ghastly expensive, IMO. Sorry.)

Ubiquitous Simpsons quote

[evacuate_the_bull]

Smithers: Well, Sir, you've certainly vanquished all your enemies: the Elementary School, the local tavern, the old age home...you must be very proud.

Burns: [stuffing money into his wallet] No, not while my greatest nemesis still provides our customers with free light, heat and energy. I call this enemy...the sun.