It's amazing how we can create so many different kinds of weapons technologies, but just can't seem to find a way to get fresh water and food to the starving nations of the world.

Where are the banana and apple guns? That's killing 2 birds with 1 stone, the psychotic gun nuts will have a blast firing away at starving people, and those people would in turn get an abundance of various foods.

Oh my, what if they did this to skin cells. The new designer skin. Be a hit at parties, never loose your way in the dark, watch the cat chase you across the yard, and best of all, the NEW Laser tag , and you are the gun!

Oh boy,.... scarey.

Yeah, but this was no ORDINARY cell. I was engineered from an human embryonic kidney cell and some kind of jelly fish.

Still very interesting. I wonder what else can be gained from this experiment, besides the communication of the cell's data, and to what end? Very cool stuff.

Whoever wrote this article for Wired Magazine was obviously lacking in knowledge of the subject being covered. The article is suggesting that these cells are shooting out lasers when in fact they are simply emitting light via fluorescence This is no big deal and is in fact commonplace in microbiology.

Let me break it down for you. They inserted the gene for 'GFP' aka 'Green Fluorescent Protein' into the cells. So now the cells incorporate a fluorescent protein somewhere in their cell structure. The scientists then stimulated the cells, or more accurately, stimulated the fluorescent proteins in the cells with "blue light". Again, saying "blue light" points to the fact that the article author was clueless. The "blue light" was an ultraviolet lamp. Ultraviolet light is necessary for the production of fluorescence. (Just google fluorescence and read about how it works.)

The "big deal" is that the scientists were able to focus this light into a "laser beam" with microscale mirrors. The rounded shape of the cells made the focusing more efficient. The mirrors and focusing are the big accomplishment here, not the light coming from the cells. In fact, getting cells to light up under UV is an everyday occurence in many thousands of labs around the world.

So, practical applications?
-Living environmental sensors using optical circuits for communication? Yep. These sensors could potentially detect/feel anything that a human cell can. (or a bacterial cell, or a plant cell...) Pretty cool because ultrafine sensitivity when probing for environmental contaminants may be achieved. Also, robots may be given a "real" sense of touch, taste, and smell!
-Making cells into living lasers? Sorry, but no way. The mircomirrors are absolutely necessary. The focusing of the light is what makes the "laser".
-Signaling aliens using plankton? Again, no. These cells produce visible light, but the light is very weak. It would take a whole ocean of these things to produce light of similar intensity to that of the Aurora. You might be able to see it from the Moon, on the night-side of the Earth, but no further.


So yeah, unless you want to sit under a UV lamp and have your retinas burned out while developing skin cancer, then you aren't going to have glow-in-the-dark-laser-skin. And the idea of "laser beams inside a patient’s body...to lase hazardous or cancerous tissue"? That won't work unless you have a good way to get micromirrors inserted right next to the cancer cells. Even then the strength of the "laser" will only be enough to piss off the cancer, not to kill it.


Watch out for "science" articles like this. There are far too many people who have the title "science writer" with no obvious qualifications to be called such.

Originally posted by ShockTruther
-Signaling aliens using plankton? Again, no. These cells produce visible light, but the light is very weak. It would take a whole ocean of these things to produce light of similar intensity to that of the Aurora.

Actually, I had a moonless midnight sea voyage once, lights off in a small boat under very clear conditions. We saw the ocean waves and the wake of the boat glowing fluorescent green due to the billions of these creatures giving off light when disturbed by waves.

Then up above we were treated to the spectacle of the Milky Way's center. I thought I died and gone to heaven that night for I've never seen anything so beautiful and amazing!

I think u guys over exaggerating it, its not a laser coming out, its a small glow of light, it cant be called laser because its not projected. I worked with GFP (Green Fluorescent Protein) in lab before, and have successfully integrated in E.coli cells(basic GFP production experiment by replacing/removing a non-fatal protein codon with a GFP protein codon), and made the new/next generation glow under UV light.

I think this is over exaggerated, but interesting because they used a somatic cells instead of a bacteria.

Originally posted by amatrine
Oh my, what if they did this to skin cells. The new designer skin. Be a hit at parties, never loose your way in the dark, watch the cat chase you across the yard, and best of all, the NEW Laser tag , and you are the gun!

Oh boy,.... scarey.

They have done it with Rabbits, that glow in the dark.

Originally posted by luciddream

I think this is over exaggerated, but interesting because they used a somatic cells instead of a bacteria.

THIS.

I agree. Integrating GFP into human somatic cells and then integrating these cells into "living" optical sensors and/or circuits has a huge potential.

As I stated before: The potential for robots with "real" sense of touch, smell, or taste! Nerve cells in combination with taste bud cells may be able to create a sensor with optical output. The optical data is analyzed by a microprocessor and interpreted as a given taste! Amazing!

Of course, this is a few more steps ahead of where the research is presently. But, oh the possibilities down the road.