Femtosecond Lasers for Nanosurgery

Roland Piquepaille writes "In "Lasers operate inside single cells," Nature writes that nanosurgery can be achieved by vaporizing some components of living cells without killing the cells themselves. "With pulses of intense laser light a millionth of a billionth of a second long, US researchers are vaporizing tiny structures inside living cells without killing them. The technique could help probe how cells work, and perform super-precise surgery." This was developed by Eric Mazur of Harvard University and his colleagues. This summary contains more details and references about the process and these microexplosions. Please note that it's a very different technique from the one described six months ago in a previous Slashdot reference, Surgery with Femtosecond Lasers."

Comments

Explosions!

[Lord Graga]

OH MY! MICRO explotions! Are they starting a micro-war?
I never thought that would happend.

Can you strap this onto a sharks head?

[stratjakt]

I don't think femtosecond is a word.

jeeze...

[Anonymous Coward]

They would get a lot more done if they left the laser on longer.

Silly Nested Quotes

[tomzyk]

In " Femtosecond Lasers for Nanosurgery," Roland Piquepaille writes "In "Lasers operate inside single cells," Nature writes that nanosurgery...

Sorry, but all of those double-quotes just through me for a loop there for a minute.

How often do you see something like "In "?

The threat is exaggerated

[Anonymous Coward]

I doubt they'll ever find weapons of micro destruction.

Coincidence? I think not.

[MisterSquid]

This was developed by Eric Mazur of Harvard University and his colleagues.

The MASER was the predecessor of the LASER. Though most don't know this, LASER is an acronym standing for "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation." The difference is that MASERs amplify Microwaves instead of light.

Isn't it convenient that the lead scientist on this is named just happened to be named "Mazur?" . . . Waitaminut, where'd that black helicopter come from?

(You can get a little info about MASERs and LASERs here)

Ist that technical?

[not_a_george]

millionth of a billionth of a second ??
That sounds, like, soooo way totally not a technical term

Re:Ist that technical?

[ChickenAintDone]

Or for the slashdotters after 35 years.

Re:Units of Length

[rco3]

A Purple Jetta III GLS strapped to a 1970 mexican release Beetle.

Aw, come on. I need more than that. Strapped which way? Vertically? Laterally? Longitudinally? How many coats of Purple are there? How fast are they going? (Relativity, don'cha know?)

This is science. We must maintain precision if our results are to mean anything.

Dr. BS

[Chagatai]

I had a neighbor in my apartment complex who had a PhD in physics, which interested me. I asked her what she specialized in, and her reply was lasers. Even more intrigued, I asked what type of lasers and how they were used. She told me she worked in femtosecond lasers that operated at a certain wavelength invisible to the human eye. "Oh," I replied. "So you're a con artist. 'My laser is working fine. What? You didn't see anything? That's the way it's supposed to work.'" Luckily, she found that funny and explained that her lasers were actually used for some specialized chromotography. I still think she's a well-paid liar.

Re:Dr. BS

[koreth]

Hmm... my mom taught me not to taunt the people with the big lasers. Especially the big invisible lasers. Count yourself lucky she had a sense of humor.

Who cares about the medical benefits of this...

[weeboo0104]

What I want to know is, can I mount one of these on a sharks head?