Doctors specialising in cosmetic treatments are warning of a growing problem of “cowboy clinics” using lasers without proper training or controls and endangering patients.

The British Association of Cosmetic Doctors (BACD) is demanding tighter regulation of the beauty industry to protect the public. But the Department of Health has ignored the warnings and announced plans to deregulate the use of lasers in cosmetic treatment.

The government proposals, which are out for consultation until June, mean high street beauty clinics offering laser treatment will no longer have to register with the Healthcare Commission, the health inspectorate, and will not be subject to regular inspection.

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Scientists at the University of Konstanz in Germany and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (Nist) in the US have developed an ultra-fast laser that could be used to search for Earth-like planets orbiting distant stars.

The device offers a record combination of high speed, short pulses and high average power.

When combined with a frequency comb, an ultra-precise technique for measuring different colours of light, it is estimated that it can boost the sensitivity of astronomical tools searching for other Earth-like planets as much as 100 fold.

The laser emits 10 billion pulses per second, each lasting about 40 femtoseconds (quadrillionths of a second) with an average power of 650 milliwatts.

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That’s Not A Moon, It’s a Laser Camera - Radiohead Shoot “House of Cards” Video

Thom & Co. recently managed to find some downtime during their US jaunt to shoot a video for the NBA-friendly In Rainbows number, “House of Cards”, in West Palm Beach, Florida.

In a somewhat predictable move by Radiohead standards (who are never ones to execute anything by what lesser bands would know as “conventional methods”), the video was shot not by a camera, but reportedly by lasers. Yes, lasers.

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A laser-generated optical comb might sound like something Flash Gordon would use to straighten his hair. It’s actually a super precise measuring device, able to find the frequency of radiation more accurately than any other method.

That might sound less exciting than a new kind of paint-dryer, but has applications in little things like the measurement of time, probing the fundamental constants of the universe, and finding other planets.  You know, small stuff.

Every light source, radio signal or cosmic ray we encounter has a frequency - find the frequency and you have information about the radiation.

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UEFA fined French champion Lyon US$5,000 (€3,200) Thursday because a fan aimed a laser pen at Manchester United player Cristiano Ronaldo during a match.

Television replays showed a circle of bright, green light shining on the Portugal international during the first half of United’s Champions League game at Stade Gerland on Feb. 20.

The fine was imposed for “incidents of an unsporting nature,” UEFA said in a statement.

Manchester United staff reported the laser pen being directed from the stands before and during the match.

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Despite domestic concerns like inflation and a looming home lending crisis, Americans continue to spend money on plastic surgery. According to the latest procedural statistics report from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS), almost 12 million cosmetic plastic surgery procedures were performed in 2007, a 7% increase from 2006 and a 59% increase from 2000.

Laser hair removal procedures grew 2%, from 887,000 in 2006 to 906,000 in 2007. Laser skin resurfacing saw a 32% jump in the number of procedures performed, from 263,000 in 2006 to 347,000 in 2007.

“The report tells me Americans are devoted to looking and feeling their best,” said Richard A. D’Amico, MD, ASPS president. “High demand continues for less invasive and relatively less expensive procedures, but there were also promising rebounds in some surgical procedures.”

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Laser marking of tools, workpieces and components offers advantages in many applications. The process is flexible, it offers several methods of permanently marking surfaces; it is a safe and environmentally friendly; it can be applied to flat, curved and unusually shaped objects made from any of a variety of materials and it can be used with materials that may be damaged by other marking methods.

Laser marking is a noncontact, thermal process relying on the heat generated by the laser beam to alter the surface of the workpiece. As its acronym name implies (Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation), lasers amplify light by absorbing and emitting energy in the form of a high-intensity beam of laser light.

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Theremins are neat; it’s a fact. The instrument hasn’t had a huge presence in the musical world, but from b-horror movies to The Beach Boys’ “Good Vibrations,” where it’s popped up, the impact has certainly been felt.

What’s the one thing that could possibly make the theremin neater? That’s right, lasers.

The beamz Music Performance System (note the lowercase “b” and the “z” in the place of “s,” for full coolness impact) combines the motion-activated music generation of the theremin with red lasers.

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A new approach to medical imaging using an instrument that can reveal details of tumours and tissues with a precision 1,000 times sharper than existing techniques has been developed by American scientists.

Raman spectroscopy can picture internal anatomical features within an accuracy of nearly a billionth of a millimetre and has already been used to image both normal tissues and tumours in mice. It could be particularly useful in cancer surgery, allowing doctors to detect and remove tumour particles that are too small to be picked up and excised using existing techniques.

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The owner of a patent relating to doping processes in wide bandgap semiconductors has asked the ITC to exclude products that use LEDs and lasers that infringe the patent.
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The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) has agreed to investigate a complaint that seeks to block the importation of a wide array of LEDs, lasers and consumer electronics products into the USA.

The action alleges that 30 major electronics manufacturers in Asia and Europe have violated a patent for producing GaN-based LEDs and laser diodes; such components are used in products such as Sony Blu-ray players, Motorola Razr phones and Hitachi camcorders.

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