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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."
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 *
I, for one, welcome our cyborg fruit fly overlords.