Scientists have created a kind of

Scientists have created the first "living laser" in the world that has the ability to create laser beams for future use to activate curative drugs in the human body.

The team of researchers at Harvard University's Wellman Center for Quantum Medicine uses a cell extracted from the human kidney and uses genetic engineering to make it capable of producing light like a child. jellyfish and shining on it a beam of blue light. The result from this cell emits a green laser beam that the human eye can see.

To create a laser beam, a light amplifier and mirror system are required to focus the light source.

Conventional lasers were created in the 1950s by using synthetic materials such as stained gases, crystals and soil to amplify quantum pulses (photons).

However, Professor Seok-Hyun Yun and his colleague Malte Gather used a green fluorescent protein (GFP) that is still used to create bioluminescent phenomena like jellyfish to make materials. amplify.

This group of scientists uses gene technology to help stem cells from the kidneys who are able to produce GFP. They then placed a cell about 15-20 micrometers (15-20 millionths of a meter) between two mirrors spaced 20 micrometers apart and shone a blue light pulse into the cell.

Immediately a green laser beam was seen that the naked eye could see emitted from the cell. Although this laser beam only lasts for a few billionths of a second, it is easy to detect, and it carries useful information about cell characteristics. The cell is also not damaged by the experiment.

Yun and Gather realized that the outer appearance of the cell acts as a lens that reflects light to produce laser radiation with energy below the level needed to produce traditional lasers with materials. synthesized to amplify quantum pulses.

The technique has important implications in scientific research as well as in the field of medicine. Because people can make cells emit lasers to better study the properties of cells and their components.

It is hoped that at some point doctors can apply the technique to create laser beams inside the human body to make cancerous tissues emit laser from deep inside the body instead. because the current laser beam is projected from outside to study them and find effective treatments.