According to the Scotland’s Evening’s Times, Scottish scientists have created a extraordinary new laser device that could end the need for fillings.
The Strathclyde University team have developed a hand-held machine that uses a laser beam to capture detailed pictures of a patient’s teeth.
According to Researchers, the images will allow dentists to detect and reverse the process of decay before permanent damage has been done. They go on to boast that it will virtually eradicate the need for fillings.
Shaped like a gin, the laser device, costing approximately $2,400, has been acclaimed as a major step forward because it detects tooth decay before it is visible on traditional X-rays.
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Manchester United have complained to Uefa that winger Cristiano Ronaldo was dazzled by a laser beam ahead of their Champions League match at Lyon.
The incident occurred in the warm-up before the last-16 first leg tie but Ronaldo showed no ill effects during United’s 1-1 draw in France.
“We reported the matter to Uefa before the game,” said Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson.
“We noticed it in the warm-up and they (Uefa) are aware of it.”
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Scientists at the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) Rutherford Appleton Laboratory have developed an effective laser-based method for the characterization of the bulk chemical content of pharmaceutical capsules–without opening the capsules.
In close collaboration with teams from pharmaceutical company Pfizer, the researchers in STFC’s Lasers for Science Facility succeeded in quantifying the presence of the active pharmaceutical ingredient in production-line-relevant capsules to a relative error of 1%. Other established non-invasive methods were unable to reach the same level of accuracy with the same sample.
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Laser stimulation of nerves may light the way to better nervous-system feedback for prosthetics.
18 February 2008—Biomedical engineers are working to develop reliable brain-machine interfaces that will someday let amputees manipulate prosthetic limbs as naturally as they do their native ones.
But hacking the nervous system is easier said than done. Today’s state-of-the-art method for connecting to the human nervous system is to deliver electrical pulses near a particular nerve cell to elicit a response, such as a muscle twitch or a sensation.
The trouble is that the electrode that delivers the pulse creates a halo of charge that triggers nearby nerve fibers. The effect is similar to that of crosstalk on telecommunications lines. Thus, the brain might misinterpret a jolt from a prosthetic arm intended to indicate that only the index finger is pressed against an object as confirmation that the entire artificial hand has grasped the object.
But researchers at Vanderbilt University, in Nashville, think they’ve found a better way. Late last year, they began clinical tests using a portable solid-state laser that can stimulate nerves more effectively and more precisely than electricity. Using a similar laser aimed at the sciatic nerve of laboratory rats, they caused some part of the animal’s legs to involuntarily twitch with each laser pulse.
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A revolutionary laser device that detects the early signs of tooth decay could end the need for fillings.
The hand-held machine, designed by scientists at Strathclyde University, Glasgow, uses a laser to create an image of a tooth’s mineral content and allows dentists to see if decay has started.
Patients whose teeth are found to have decay are given fluoride to repair their teeth before permanent damage sets in.
The £1000 machine is due to undergo clinical trials shortly and it is hoped that it will be used in trials in Scotland later this year.
Professor John Girkin, who developed the device, said: ‘It is known that teeth can heal themselves and remineralise if you spot the decay early enough.’
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A pioneering technique developed by scientists could help doctors detect respiratory diseases like asthma or cancer with a laser light.
A team at JILA, a joint institute of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Colorado (CU) at Boulder have developed a technique called cavity-enhanced direct optical frequency comb spectroscopy that can detect molecules in the breath that may be indicators for diseases.
“This technique can give a broad picture of many different molecules in the breath all at once,” said Jun Ye, lead researcher.
While breathing we inhale a complex mixture of gasses including nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, and water vapour and also some traces of carbon monoxide, nitrous oxide, and methane that are potential biomarkers of disease.
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If you could hold a giant magnifying glass in space and focus all the sunlight shining toward Earth onto one grain of sand, that concentrated ray would approach the intensity of a new laser beam made in a University of Michigan laboratory.
“That’s the instantaneous intensity we can produce,” said Karl Krushelnick, a physics and engineering professor. “I don’t know of another place in the universe that would have this intensity of light. We believe this is a record.”
The pulsed laser beam lasts just 30 femtoseconds. A femtosecond is a millionth of a billionth of a second.
Such intense beams could help scientists develop better proton and electron beams for radiation treatment of cancer, among other applications.
The record-setting beam measures 20 billion trillion watts per square centimeter.
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For many drivers, it is their last best hope. The crash-warning systems that are increasingly common in higher-end cars sound an alarm if a collision is imminent, providing a few precious seconds for the operator to slam on the brakes or quickly change course to avoid an accident.
The reliability of these systems is crucial, so the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Gaithersburg, Md., wants to find out whether there is room for improvement.
The government agency devised a laser-based independent measurement system and is helping the US Department of Transportation to assess the performance of the collision-warning systems. Researchers in the automotive industry will be able to use the data to make improvements to warning systems currently under development.
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Make a waterproof laser holder that will allow you to shine a beam under water! Looks cool, waterproof! looks like a flashlight! Find out more …
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You’ve got to feel some compassion for the people aiming to call the photonics and laser market for 2008. At today’s Lasers and Photonics Marketplace Seminar, Steve Anderson, editor-in-chief of Laser Focus World, prefaced his annual forecast of the laser market with the following words from Stanford economics professor Ezra Solomon: “The only purpose of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable.”
And there’s no doubt that the effects of instability in the US economy – and increasingly the global financial marketplace – has introduced even more uncertainty into what has always been an inexact science. According to Anderson, the biggest unknown is how falling consumer confidence, particularly in the US, might impact on global laser sales.
The good news, he says, is that for the moment at least it appears that high-tech firms have been shielded from the broader economic malaise. Figures released by Anderson show that sales of all types of lasers increased by around 9% in 2007 to reach $6.9 billion. He also forecasts continued growth in 2008 – albeit at a lower rate of 7% – which will bring the total laser market to $7.3 billion.
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