The laser: a solution looking for problems?

This is just the sort of thing Theodore Maiman said he had in mind when was interviewed 50 years ago, after being the first to successfully demonstrate the laser: medical procedures that would change or even save lives in ways as yet unimagined.

This time, the laser has been used to perform surgery on an unborn fetus.

Surgeons at the University of Miami’s Jackson Memorial Hospital reported they have performed the first-ever in utero surgery on a fetus. A rare tumor diagnosed about halfway through the pregnancy via ultrasound was removed from the roof of the mouth using laesr technology. A few months later, the baby was born at full-term and healthy.

Never mind that one newspaper at the time called Maiman’s pioneering ruby laser “a solution in search of a problem.” Applications have been developed in nearly every facet of life, and the list of medical solutions that lasers provide is impressive.

Starting from the beginning, medical applications of lasers were life-enhancing -- removing a birthmark known as port-wine stain -- as well as life-saving -- treating skin cancer. Eye surgery was another early application, as IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center's James Wynne told SPIE.tv in a recent video.

Today lasers are used widely in several medical fields:

dermatology: removing tattoos and hair as well as life-threatening tumors
ophthalmology: restoring vision by repairing the lens, reattaching a damaged retina or creating a prosthetic retina
oncology: treating cancer through photodynamic therap, and diagnosing tumors are earlier and earlier stages for better patient recovery results
surgery, dentistry, veterinary medicine and numerous other therapeutic as well as diagnostic applications.

… not to mention wide-ranging nonmedical applications:

laser guide stars for astronomical observations
lasers for manufacturing everything from smartphones to lumber
fiber optic laser systems for broadcasting the internet
smart-car technology to detect people or objects behind the vehicle, nondestructive testing of bridges, laser light shows … and much more.

What will the laser do next? Plenty! For example, lasers are enabling new personalized medicine regimens with treatments tailored to an individual’s particular genomes, and hold promise to provide abundant clean energy through the process of fusion.

Hear first-hand from more than three dozen laser experts about what the laser can do and what’s next in a series of videos celebrating the recent 50th anniversary of technology -- and hear from Miles Padgett (University of Glasgow) about the latest in optical tweezers for manipulating light and John Dudley (Univ. de Franche-Comté, CNRS Institut FEMTO-ST) on new directions in nonlinear optics, in ongoing video coverage on SPIE.tv.

Ted Maiman was among visionaries honored in a tribute display shown during the 2010 observance of the 50th anniversary of laser technology. Photo: Theodore Harold Maiman - © Bettmann/CORBIS.

Ten Ways to Celebrate the first International Day of Light

The first International Day of Light (IDL) is less than a month away. A global initiative highlighting the importance of light and light-based technologies, communities around the world are planning events celebrating IDL on 16 May. First Place Winner of the 2017 SPIE IDL Photo Contest SPIE will participate in outreach events local to our community in Bellingham, Washington, attend the inauguration in Paris, France, and host an IDL reception for our conference attendees at SPIE Optical Systems Design in Frankfurt, Germany taking place May 14-17. SPIE is also supporting local events in 13 different communities from the US to India, Canada to South Africa, who were awarded SPIE IDL Micro Grants to create activities that highlight the critical role light plays in our daily lives. Do you need some ideas on how to show your appreciation of light on the 16th? Here is our top ten list of ways you can celebrate IDL 2018: 1. Throw a Celebration: Light up your party with light an

Cataract surgery: misnomer?

On left, the patient’s left eye has no cataract and all structures are visible. On right, retinal image from fundus camera confirms the presence of a cataract. (From Choi, Hjelmstad, Taibl, and Sayegh, SPIE Proc. 85671Y , 2013) Article by guest blogger Roger S. Reiss , SPIE Fellow and recipient of the 2000 SPIE President's Award. Reiss was the original Ad Hoc Chair of SPIE Optomechanical Working Group. He manages the LinkedIn Group “ Photonic Engineering and Photonic Instruments .” The human eye and its interface with the human brain fit the definition of an "instrument system." The human eye by itself is also an instrument by definition. After the invention of the microscope and the telescope, the human eye was the first and only detector for hundreds of years, only to be supplemented and in most cases supplanted by an electro-optical detector of various configurations. The evolution of the eye has been and still is a mystery. In National Geogr

#FacesofPhotonics: NASA Intern Elaine Stewart

MIRROR, MIRROR: Elaine with the JWST at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland Meet Elaine Stewart: chemical engineering student, world-traveler, intern at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, and this week's SPIE Face of Photonics. Elaine is fascinated by space exploration and how optics impacts our ability to "study distant stars that have never been seen before." Her research has taken her around the world -- from Bochum, Germany, where she studied material science and engineering at Ruhr-Universität, to Houston, Texas, to work on the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) while it was under cryogenic vacuum chamber testing, to Melbourne, Australia, where she studied biochemical and product engineering at the University of Melbourne in 2017. And, when she's not busy traversing the globe, she is focusing on graduating from the University of Delaware in 2019 with a Bachelor's in Chemical Engineering. Elaine makes a point of remaining an active

Photonics for a Better World

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