Laser in Biological News

Nonstick and laser-safe gold aids laser trapping of biomolecules

Biophysicists long for an ideal materialsomething more structured and less sticky than a standard glass surfaceto anchor and position individual biomolecules. Gold is an alluring possibility, with its simple chemistry and the ease with which it can be patterned. Unfortunately, gold also tends to b...

Using high-precision laser tweezers to juggle cells

Researchers at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, have developed a new method to study single cells while exposing them to controlled environmental changes. The unique method, where a set of laser tweezers move the cell around in a microscopic channel system, allows the researchers to study how...

'Fattysaurus' or 'thinnysaurus'? How dinosaurs measure up with laser imaging

Karl Bates and his colleagues in the palaeontology and biomechanics research group have reconstructed the bodies of five dinosaurs, two T. rex (Stan at the Manchester Museum and the Museum of the Rockies cast MOR555), an Acrocanthosaurus atokensis , a Strutiomimum sedens and an Edmontosaurus...

ESA tests laser to measure atmospheric carbon dioxide

A recent ESA campaign has demonstrated how a technique using lasers could be employed to measure carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The campaign supports one of the main objectives of the candidate Earth Explorer A-SCOPE mission. A-SCOPE (Advanced Space Carbon and climate Observation of Planet E...

Sensitive laser instrument could aid search for life on Mars

IDAHO FALLS -- Minuscule traces of cells can be detected in a mineral likely present on Mars, a new study shows. The results, obtained using a technique developed at the U.S. Department of Energy's Idaho National Laboratory, could help mission scientists choose Martian surface samples with the mos...

Cleaner diesels thanks to laser light

Measuring soot formation in a diesel engine is far from easy. Due to the turbulent environment in the combustion cylinder, no two combustion cycles are the same. Furthermore, the measurements are difficult to reproduce as the pressure at which fuel is injected into the cylinder causes an extra sou...

Princeton researchers discover new type of laser

A Princeton-led team of researchers has discovered an entirely new mechanism for making common electronic materials emit laser beams. The finding could lead to lasers that operate more efficiently and at higher temperatures than existing devices, and find applications in environmental monitoring a...

Life under the laser

Researchers at The University of Nottingham have developed a unique technology that will allow scientists to look at microscopic activity within the body's chemical messenger system for the very first time, live as it happens. The cutting edge laser technology has helped to attract 1.3 million ...

Diminishing dinosaur steps saved by laser and laptop

The Fumanya site, in the Bergueda region of central Catalonia, is so delicate that experts cannot get physically close enough to the tracks to examine them. In the years since the tracks were discovered they have been exposed to the elements, and as a result are severely weathered and eroding at ...

Remote control flies? Fly behavior controlled by laser light

Ed : Don't miss out the cool movies, link at the end of the press release! Yale University School of Medicine researchers have found a way to exercise a little mind control over fruit flies, making the flies jump, beat their wings, and fly on command by triggering genetic "remote controls" tha...

Novel ultrafast laser detection of cancer cells also may improve understanding of stem cells

To investigate tumors, pathologists currently rely on labor-intensive microscopic examination, using century-old cell-staining methods that can take days to complete and may give false readings. A lightning-fast laser technique, led by Sandia National Laboratories researcher Paul Gourley, has pr...

Jet-propelled imaging for an ultrafast light source

...erator to produce coherent x-rays with an instrument called a free electron laser (FEL). The x-rays will be delivered 120 times a second in pulses only a ten... be possible to orient flying droplets by optical methods such as polarized laser beams or with specially shaped nozzles. Perhaps simpler is to use the e...

DOE-funded research projects win 46 R&D 100 Awards for 2009

... advanced technology developed to protect critical laser systems from pulses that contain incorrect bandwid...amplification. The device inspects each individual laser pulse, which is traveling at the speed of light, a...red from further amplification, avoiding potential laser damage. ROSE This technology radically chang...

Frost & Sullivan Recognizes MIRTEC With the 2009 Award for Automated Optical Inspection Product Innovation of the Year

...dge in dealing with both their immediate and future inspection requirements." MIRTEC's competitive advantages include leading edge optics and laser inspection technology, an award winning global support organization, a diversified customer base, and an expanded geographic presence. It is no surpr...

New windows opened on cell-to-cell interactions

...l interactions." The observations were made using an inverted microscopy technique in which the glass spheres were placed in a 655-nanometer diode laser beam, an approach developed in Parthasarathy's lab by former undergraduate biophysics student Greg Tietjen, now a doctoral student at the University o...

New Report Just Published: World Solid-State, Fiber, Gas and Dye Lasers Market Report

...Inc., Scientific Materials Corporation, and TRUMPF laser GmbH + Co. KG. Market data and analytics are deriv...ECUTIVE SUMMARY 1. Industry Overview II-1 laser Industry - A Glimpse II-1 Global Market Analys...sers Eat into the Share of Gas Lasers II-4 laser Industry Feels the Heat of Global Financial Crisis...

The sound of light: Innovative technology shatters the barriers of modern light microscopy

...ht audible. They illuminated the fish from multiple angles using flashes of laser light that are absorbed by fluorescent pigments in the tissue of the geneti...is happens very quickly and creates small shock waves. In effect, the short laser pulse gives rise to an ultrasound wave that the researchers pick up with an...

An easy way to find a needle in a haystack by removing the haystack

...r analyzing of large biomolecules. Matrix-Assisted laser Desorption/Ionization (MALDI), wherein bio-molecul...nce called a matrix subsequently irradiated with a laser leads to the formation of protein ions which can b...LDI technique have a substantial disadvantage: the laser beam not only forms ions from the substances of in...

Nanocrystals reveal activity within cells

...competes with light emitting from the cell, and often requires such intense laser excitation, it eventually destroys the probe, muddling anything you'd be in...to the interior of the cell. Live-cell imaging using the same near-infrared laser showed similarly strong luminescence from the nanocrystals within the mouse...

Slicing chromosomes leads to new insights into cell division

... ANN ARBOR, Mich.By using ultrafast laser pulses to slice off pieces of chromosomes and observe how the chromosomes b...t, taking advantage of the unprecedented precision of femtosecond pulses of laser light. A femtosecond is one billionth of one millionth of a second. The chr...

A research work will be the reference to characterize the climatic impact of desert dust

...ery moment". This technique is very similar to a radar, says the researcher, "as it consists in emitting an electromagnetic radiation, in this case laser light, which propagates in the atmosphere, interacts with the particles in suspension and afterwards, collects the radiation returned to the instrumen...

Triage technology with a Star Trek twist

...s necessary to any diagnosis pulse, body temperature, and respiration. It's triage at twenty paces. The magic behind SPTT is a technology known as laser Doppler Vibrometry, which has been used in aircraft and automotive components, acoustic speakers, radar technology, and landmine detection. When conn...

Sulphur in just one hair could blow a terrorist's alibi

... detect these small variations. "The new method is based on combining a laser ablation system and multicollector inductively-coupled plasma mass spectrom...ra-Fernndez of LGC, lead author of the study, tells SINC. To summarise, the laser makes contact with the selected fraction of the hair, generating an aerosol...

Healing wounds with lasers, vehicles that drive themselves, other cutting-edge optics

.... For years, scientists have used the energy in laser light to drill microscopic holes or as tweezers or...ingle column of 4,000 pixels, powered by a beam of laser light. This rapidly-changing vertical stripe of co...nearly instantaneously modified by a separate pump laser beam incident from above. A sequential array of "t...

Nobel Laureate underscores importance of investment in basic research

...ndamental research." Dr. Phillips is a pioneer and leading researcher in laser cooling and trapping of atoms at the National Institute of Standards and Te...was the ONR program officer who initiated funding for Phillips' research on laser cooling and trapping of neutral atoms. ...

Milestone in live microscopy focus of $2 million NIH grant

...lities since the late 1930s. However, rather than taking static photos like their predecessors, DTEMs capture processes in real time by using a pulsed laser to produce very short bursts of electrons to illuminate specimens. In order to create the third-generation TEM, which Browning and his team are cal...

Pliable proteins keep photosynthesis on the light path

... to chemical energy happen in a millionth of a millionth of a second, which makes experimental observation extremely challenging. A premier ultrafast laser spectroscopic detection system that Lin has built, with the sponsorship of the National Science Foundation, acts like a high-speed motion picture came...

Neuroscientists discover long-term potentiation in the olfactory bulb

...endent on olfactory sensory recognition. Using an innovative home-built laser microscope, Strowbridge and Gao were able to determine that the olfactory b... This study was funded by the National Institutes of Health. The 2-photon laser microscope used in the study was constructed with support from the Mount Si...

Researcher: Lasers used to detect melamine in baby formula

...." Mauer obtained unadulterated samples of powdered formula and measured the samples using near- and mid-infrared spectroscopy techniques. Infrared laser beams reflected off the sample and toward a detector, which calculated how much of the laser's energy was absorbed by the sample and created an absorb...

MIT: Making waves in the brain

... have found a way to induce these waves by shining laser light directly onto the brains of mice. The wor...anipulate their activity with precise timing via a laser and an optical fiber over the brain," explains co-.... When these cells were driven with high frequency laser pulses, the illuminated region of cortex started t...

Laughing hyenas, wailing levees, the sound of cheese and blaring bagpipes

...state Reversing Time to Spot Cracks in Gas Pipes laser Makes Big Bangs Underwater Icelandic Sage: Return...a/abstracts/search.may09/asa664.html 11) laser MAKES BIG BANGS UNDERWATER Technologies that us...hington, DC, are working on ways to use flashes of laser light instead. These lasers travel through air and...

Alzheimer cell death in Zebrafish: Demise of neurons observed live for the first time

...ctive loss of neurons. They were even able to observe this while it was happening. "The translucent larvae of the zebrafish can be studied under a laser microscope over an extended period of time," reports Haass. "If you add a color dye to the water to specifically stain dying cells, you can even direc...

Fluorescent cancer cells to guide brain surgeons

...substance (5-aminofluorescein) to albumin, which is distributed throughout the body via the bloodstream and eventually accumulates in the brain tumor. laser light causes the substance to glow and makes the fine extensions of the tumor visible. "Other contrast agents often fade," says Dr. Eva Frei, "for...

AIUM presents 2009 William J. Fry Memorial Lecture award

...American College of Radiology (ACR) from 1987 to 1993 and did the primary work on the ACR Learning Teaching File for Ultrasound, later transposed onto laser disc and CD-ROM. As director of medical student education for the Department of Radiology at Jefferson Medical College and Thomas Jefferson University...

Montana State grad's work helps diagnose skin cancer without a biopsy

...lt Medical Center in Tennessee to build a handheld laser microscope that could someday reduce the number of... the skin with normal white light, the device uses laser light. The laser light is used to form an image of the skin's cellu...

Making a point: Picoscale stability in a room-temperature AFM

...be tip, deflecting the cantilever. By reflecting a laser beam from the top of the cantilever, researchers c... a fluid. The JILA solution uses two additional laser beams to sense the three-dimensional motion of bot...cial marksembedded in it at regular intervals. One laser beam is focused on one of these disks. A small por...

Cellulosic biofuel technology will generate low-cost green fuel, says major study

...icy makers. They include a major paper in which laser et al carry out a comparative analysis of 14 of th...roduction of ethanol and power from switchgrass by laser et al, which evaluates three process designs for p...orkers on the RBAEF project - particularly Dr Mark laser of Dartmouth College who worked so effectively to ...

Caltech and UCSD researchers shed light on how proteins find their shapes

... The Winkler-Gray method of watching proteins as they crumple and fold involves the use of a picosecond camera that captures fluorescent flashes as a laser pulse excites a donor probe, which emits light and transfers that light to an acceptor probe. The distance between the donor and acceptor change as th...

Case Western Reserve researchers looking at light-induced toxins in air and water

...t well understood. The Crespo group expects that by using sophisticated laser techniques with less than a trillionth of a second time resolution, in comb...g in 1-Nitropyrene," was one of the first scholarly works using femtosecond laser techniques (1 femtosecond = 1  10-15 seconds) to investigate the el...

Dangerous printer particles identified

...otentially hazardous particles emitted from common laser printers have been revealed by a new study at Quee... earlier findings that almost one third of popular laser printers emitted large numbers of ultrafine partic...ould help consumers better understand the risks of laser printers and would help the printer industry to de...