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Scientists Control a Fly's Heartbeat With a Laser (ieee.org)
the_newsbeagle writes: Researchers have demonstrated a laser-based pacemaker in fruit flies, and say that a human version is "not impossible."
The invention makes use of optogenetics, a technique in which the DNA that codes for a light-sensitive protein is inserted into certain cells, enabling those cells to be activated by pulses of light. Researchers often use this method to study neurons in the brain, but in this case the researchers altered flies' heart cells. Then they activated those cardiac cells using pulses of light, causing them to contract in time with the pulses (abstract). Voila, they had an optical pacemaker that worked on living adult fruit flies.
Don't worry, no one can control your heartbeat with a laser just yet. That would require inserting foreign DNA into your heart cells, and also finding a way to shine light through the impediment of your flesh and bones. But lead researcher Chao Zhou of Lehigh University is working on it.
The invention makes use of optogenetics, a technique in which the DNA that codes for a light-sensitive protein is inserted into certain cells, enabling those cells to be activated by pulses of light. Researchers often use this method to study neurons in the brain, but in this case the researchers altered flies' heart cells. Then they activated those cardiac cells using pulses of light, causing them to contract in time with the pulses (abstract). Voila, they had an optical pacemaker that worked on living adult fruit flies.
Don't worry, no one can control your heartbeat with a laser just yet. That would require inserting foreign DNA into your heart cells, and also finding a way to shine light through the impediment of your flesh and bones. But lead researcher Chao Zhou of Lehigh University is working on it.
So will heart surgeons use sharks in the operating room or will sharks become heart surgeons?
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
No more techno raves for you, Mr. Heart Patient!
Left MS Windows for Linux Mint and never looked back!
Vote for Bernie in 2016!
Well that's easy ... "Calm down already or I'll zap you AGAIN."
The hard part was getting them to understand English.
If the universe is someone's simulation -- does that mean the stars are just stuck pixels?
Give me a big enough laser, and I'll show you that I can control your heartbeat.
#DeleteChrome
heart rate, CNS, vocal cords and - sadly - excretory functions for some time now.
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
So even though people today complaining about ELF weapons and mind control are delusional paranoiacs, and such things may or may not be actually possible with current technology, it won't be long before we can be genetically modified to MAKE such things possible with existing technology.
going to use this to stop out heartbeats?
Wish I had a laser pointer about now. My toilet was leaking, called maintenance. Guy rings the doorbell, cat makes a beeline for the bedroom. Toilet is fixed about 2:30 this afternoon, he's still under the bed. The cat, not the maintenance guy. I did not kill the maintenance guy and stuff him under the bed. It's now almost 7 hours later, cat is still under the bed. No, he is not nibbling on the maintenance guy, I did not kill him and stuff him under the bed. Stupid cat is under the bed all by himself, looking at me with big green eyes when I get on my hands and knees and point a flashlight at him.
// kept him in the bathroom til it got dark
/// hopefully, enough people will throw trash into the dumpster while it's dark nobody notices him tomorrow
/ maintenance guy is in the dumpster
It has been easy to "control" a heart beat for years. It just requires enough power
I have a Wicked Lasers Arctic 1000mw blue laser wand. I was playing with it in my Lazy Boy when I saw a fly on the wall by the TV. I turned it on, did the code for full power, aimed it at the fly.
No more heartbeat. Poof!
* Carthago Delenda Est *
We will see cells that can be repurposed shining a strong light into its window. Yay!
I, for one, welcome our cyborg fruit fly overlords.