Infrared laser shown to quicken heart rate, gives hope for ultra-small pacemakers
By Darren Murph 
posted August 16th 2010 10:41AM
posted August 16th 2010 10:41AM
Here's an interesting one. Just years after a researcher in Japan realized that lasers could stimulate nerves, a professor of biomedical engineering at Vanderbilt University along with cohorts from Case Western Reserve have found that the same is true with the heart. By using an Infrared laser on an early embryonic heart, tests were able to show that the muscle was "in lockstep with the laser pulse rate." The crew also found no signs of laser damage after a few hours of experimenting, though obviously more extensive research would be required before any medical agency allowed such a device to be beamed underneath a human chest. The hope here is that this discovery could one day lead to ultra-small, implantable pacemakers, or better still, to "pace an adult heart during surgery." There's nary a mention of when this stuff will actually be ready for FDA oversight, but there's a downright creepy video of it all in the source link. Consider yourself warned.
Heart cancer.
Finally, a scientist using lasers for good, rather than just carving dongs on the moon.
@TheRealCJ Yeah, except now they can carve dongs on your heart.
Wow, medical tech is advancing at a dramatic pace!
At this rate within 100 years: cancer will be cured, organs will be grown routinely, synthetic blood will make donations unnecessary, and who knows what else. Genetic re-sequencing to combat hereditary diseases?
This is a great time to be alive!
@SiXiam Actually, wouldn't 100 years from now be the great time to be alive? ;-)
@infoclipper
No, and I'll tell you why.
They will never experience the suffering of all these medical conditions and that's a great thing. However they also will never experience just what it took to get that far. If you ever played Civilization 3, whenever you discover the cure for cancer it creates an instant golden age, and your unhappy citizens, become content. I've seen images of the celebrations at the end of WW2. I can only imagine the worldwide happiness and celebrations that a cure for cancer would create. It's a day worth being here to see!
@SiXiam
I don't know what you take and in what form, but do you honestly believe that we will have a golden age over 100 years?
We don't have enough resources for everyone to live like the middle class or even higher, unless we learn to recycle efficiently and even then recycling itself sometimes is more polluting than mining from natural resources.
So the way I see it is we're gonna have a big war or bad diseases or natural hazard (like flood/huricane/earthquake/etc) in the (near) future.
And to be honest we already have bad diseases and they just keep getting stronger because we have to use heavier stuff to kill them whenever they pop-up. Global there are more natural hazards than before so we have that as well.
The only thing left is a big war to end all wars ;) . It will probably be about resources(like the war in Iraq) and we already see tensions in resourceful places, it is only a matter of time and bad economy. The latter of which looks like regaining, but only time will tell.
@Ceyran
Yes I do think we will have a golden age!
I feel very optimistic today, I'm normally a realist. The Animatrix's described it as a second renaissance, the fruit of robotics, and various other technological innovations. Imagine inventions comparable in scope to the internet itself!
As for war, the days of large scale war is over. Regional conflicts like Iraq & Afghanistan are what war is today. Genocide & terrorism will still be problems in 100 years.
I don't see any large scale wars for resources happening. The big thing now everyone talks about is that there isn't enough water. Desalination of sea water is more expensive, but more advanced solar panels will make the energy needed cheaper. How is recycling more polluting than mining?
I disagree that the world can't all live like the middle class. The idea assumes that everyone on Earth will live like the US and technology remains stagnant. It reminds me of the doomsayers of the past, who said that we would all be starving by the 20th century. Of course from their perspective they couldn't have imagined a diesel tractor.
Yeah, the CIA will be killing foreign agents in the middle of shopping plazas with this soon.
They just gave that embryo Down Syndrome.
I wonder how this could be used to towards sporting performance enhancement.
I wonder if this will prove usefull for infants with cardio needs? How is the heart currently maintained during surgery and how would this aid that?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULI5kolBpAk
This should get Dick Cheney's heart racing.
Considering I'm moving into Case Western this Wednesday, this makes me really proud. Gotta love technology and medicine :]
PEW PEW!