Perfect vision in minutes. See better than 20/20 today. Throw away your glasses forever. You won’t believe your eyes.
The LASIK ads are so tempting. How can one resist those attractive women and men, nerds no more, liberated from the yoke of eyewear, at long last taking control of their lives, experiencing new-found happiness in karate and kayaking. It’s enough to make folks without eyeglasses jealous, left wondering how they too can get in on some of this good stuff.
But that’s because the ads fail to mention the side effects that hundreds of thousands of people who have undergone LASIK laser eye surgery experience each day, such as poor night vision, dry eyes and incessant glare problems.
Last week a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel on LASIK heard testimony from some of these patients not so happy with their procedure. The panel recommended that the FDA needs to better inform the public about the risks of the laser surgery.
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DOZENS of laser-light attacks on aircraft are still being reported, despite attempts by federal and state governments to deter offenders with threats of jail.
Records seen by The Australian show that on one day – Thursday, April 24 – five laser attacks were reported by pilots to aviation authorities and the Australian Federal Police, including a laser light being shone into the cabin of a Royal Flying Doctor aircraft making a final approach to Adelaide airport.
On the same day, a Qantas pilot reported to Sydney air traffic controllers that the aircraft was being targeted by a green laser.
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ANYONE who has ever shared a bed with a snorer knows the torture of sleepless nights and the arguments that can follow. Now surgeons hope a revolutionary laser technique could solve the problem for many chronic snorers in Scotland. A private clinic in London is to start offering the surgery to patients in Edinburgh.
It is thought that Scotland’s obesity problems make it a prime target for the treatment, with much snoring caused by people being overweight. But experts warned that surgery should be a last resort and that it was not always successful. The news came during National Stop Snoring Week.
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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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The world’s top laser experts will gather in Kissimmee, FL, to share innovations in lasers and emerging technologies at the 28th Annual Scientific Conference of the American Society for Laser Medicine and Surgery (ASLMS).
LASER 2008 will be held on April 2-6, 2008, at the Gaylord Palms(TM) Resort and Convention Center.
Headlining the scientific program are acknowledged leaders in the field who will unveil the latest research developments and clinical studies in laser medicine, as well as present promising devices poised to enhance disease detection and management.
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