Surgery Using A Sunlight Scalpel

Makarand writes "Research conducted by Israeli doctors has shown that it is possible to use concentrated sunlight instead of lasers to perform surgery, providing a safe and low cost alternative to laser treatment. In their experiments sunlight was transported into the operating room from outside using a system of optical fibers. The concentrated rays - containing several watts of energy - were then used in the experimental surgery conducted on rats." Here is Wired's similar story.

Comments

Confirmation

[kinnell]

I can verify that this is indeed feasible. I have myself performed exploratory operations on a number of ants and other selected insects using concentrated sunlight.

Re:Confirmation

[cpeterso]

When I was a kid, I attempted numerous cryogenic experiments on bees. I froze them in my freezer and would then try to wake them using sunlight or the microwave. Here are my results:

Bee in microwave 0-5 seconds: no change in behavior
Bee in microwave 5-10 seconds: rapid movement
Bee in microwave 10+ seconds: no movement/game over

I now regret my mad science experiments (there were many others), but at least I can share the scientific results with others. Let not those bees die in vain...

Cloudy days.

[Spudley]

All fine and dandy... until the sun goes behind a cloud right at the critical moment! :-o

Re:Cloudy days.

[TripleA]

Or, like in some parts of the world, the sun is intense enough only during May, June, July and August. I have indeed tested this myself. You can't fry ants in the winter, cause a) there are no ants to be seen, and b) the sunligth is not strong enough.

Re:Cloudy days.

[MImeKillEr]

You can't fry ants in the winter, cause a) there are no ants to be seen, and b) the sunligth is not strong enough.

You've obviously never lived in my area of Texas.

Summers (with the exception of this one) usually have 30+ consecutive days over 100 degrees F. I'm not sure how many days we've had in the 100s this year. Three years ago we hit 117F.

We've had 'winters' where temps were in the 80s and not a single cloud in the sky.

We can literally wear shorts outdoors on Christmas.

Sure, the ants would usually be dormant, but not when that warm.

Re:Cloudy days.

[MImeKillEr]

AFAIK, winter = cold season.

Wrong. Winter is defined as (from dictionary.com)

"The usually coldest season of the year, occurring between autumn and spring, extending in the Northern Hemisphere from the winter solstice to the vernal equinox, and popularly considered to be constituted by December, January, and February. "

Generally, its understood that winter (in the northern hemisphere at least) is the time when the earth tilts on its axis and the northern hemisphere is furtherst from the sun.

Re:Cloudy days.

[MImeKillEr]

Nope.

From http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/ask_astro/answer s/980221a.html:

"
I have heard two conflicting reasons explaining why winter is cooler.

(1) Because of the slight pivot of Earth's on its axis, the sun is farther away during winter because part of the planet is pointing away from the sun, hence, less energy reaches that surface.

(2) The sun is actually CLOSER to the surface during winter but light hits the planet at an obtuse angle which "skims" the surface. Direct rays are not hitting the surface which brings about cooler temperatures.

Which explanation is correct?

The Answer
The second. Winter is colder because the earth's axis is tilted. Winter occurs for the hemisphere which is tilted away from the sun (the northern hemisphere in January, the southern in July). This has two main effects on the winter hemisphere. First, the sun is above the horizon for fewer hours each day, so that hemisphere receives less heat from the sun. Also, sunlight strikes the ground at a shallower angle so that less energy per unit area is intercepted by the winter hemisphere. It is true that the earth is closest to the sun in January. However, the distance from the earth to the sun varies by only about 2% over a year. This causes a change of only 4% in the amount of solar radiation hitting the earth so this effect is not significant compared to the other two.
"

Emphasis mine.

"Oops"

[rylin]

Now that everyone's used to the BOFH, let me introduce the BSFH (Bastard Surgeon From Hell)..

Blaming someone's critical conditions on sunflares, anyone? ;)

Re:Weather permitting...

[tsa]

To prevent the influence of the clouds you can build a tower that is higher than the clouds. But then you can only operate during the day. So you also need some mirrors in orbit to reflect the sunlight from the other side of the earth into the tower. Because of the earth's rotation you will need to be able to move the mirrors so that they keep reflecting the light towards the tower. Then you have a system that is cooler than lasers, so nerds will flock to your hospital making you rich like Donald Duck's uncle! Hehehe!

Are the lasers a significant cost?

[TheLink]

Just curious - are the lasers a significant cost or are they outweighed by the costs of the people controling and maintaining the laser, and the systems involved in assisting the control (intensity, focus, width etc). Would a consistent light beam be necessary for surgery and if it is, would maintaining the consistency of a sunlight beam be cheaper?

Personally I believe this is just a "party trick".

If you don't have access to a laser, are there compelling reasons to pick the sunlight system over a scalpel system?

Re:Are the lasers a significant cost?

[Anonymous Coward]

I would have thought that a reader of slashdot would realise what this is good for: Home Surgery! Home metalwork!

No longer do you need to buy a large laser or even the parts for one, leading to you being lists on $EVIL_GOVT_AGENCY databases, you can just make a concentrator mirror and fibre doohickey, and slice through things you're not supposed to slice through to your heart's content!

Re:Are the lasers a significant cost?

[Indomitus]

The Wired article listed the laser machines at $10,000 and the sunlight machine at $1,000. The sunlight machines are new and so I'd imagine the prices will drop as more of them are sold so the price difference will only get more in favor of the sunlight machine.

I'm not a doctor but I believe there are many surgeries that are difficult/impossible to do with scalpel instead of a laser (many cancer removals for example). For poor areas (many of which happen to be in sunlight rich areas) this is a good way to get those surgeries done without having to buy the laser system.

Slashdot!

[ClosedSource]

Where else can you start a conversation on advances in surgery and end up arguing over the definition of winter?

That was my idea!

[Gyl]

Of course I wasn't going to do surgery with it. I was thinking take the Keck telescope (10 m diameter), aim it at the sun, attach fiber optic cable at the focus, cut down a forest (being a gentle example of what to do :)

A quick google search reveals high power lasers of 100 W another quick search shows: ~250 W/m^2 as solar power reaching earth's surface. A circle of diameter 10 m, 78.5 m^2. Giving almost 20,000 watts. hehehe. Assume you loose half of that in mechanics, it's still 10,000 watts!

Re:That was my idea!

[GodsMadClown]

... Giving almost 20,000 watts. hehehe. Assume you loose half of that in mechanics, it's still 10,000 watts!...

Assuyming you lose half of that in mechanics, you'll melt whatever it is that's absorbing all that heat energy.

and if it's cloudy?

[confused one]

'nuf said...

great!

[TwistedSpring]

Does this mean I can fix my ghastly vision by staring at the sun instead of going in for all that expensive laser surgery?

Several watts?

[JUSTONEMORELATTE]

Granted the article is light on details (no pun intended) but why does the power source need to be the Sun? Why not use the same combining/collimating /focus method but draw the power from one or more conventional incandescent lamps?
Yes, I realize that Sun == free, and electicity != free. Howsabout the Solar version for subsaharan Africa where reliable power is rare but sunlight is not, and we'll take the 1/10th-the-price-of-a-laser incandescent one here in North America where the opposite is true.

--

suitable for all laser applications?

[iggymanz]

But can we have sharks with frickin' sunlight concentrating devices attached to their heads?

"Watts" of energy?

[GameGod0]

How did this make it past the Slashdot editors, especially in the science section of Slashdot? Watts are units of power. Joules are units of energy. The phrase "several watts of energy" does not make any sense.

Re:Danger Wil Robinson!

[reverseengineer]

Is this sounding like a good way to get skin cancer to anyone else?

No, because the idea is to aim the beam at tissues that you want to destroy, such as tumor cells. Ideally, the targeted cells will be vaporized, so whether or not UV light induces mutations in them is a moot point.

I do personally love the ironic possibility of using a beam of focused sunlight to destroy a melanoma caused by too much exposure to sunlight, though.