Fluorescent jellyfish proteins light up unconventional laser

Safer lasers to map your cells could soon be in the offing -- all thanks to the humble jellyfish. Conventional lasers, like the pointer you might use to entertain your cat, produce light by emitting identical photons after they have bounced around inside a cavity. But scaling these up requires lots of energy (Read More at New Scientist).

The BioOptics World take on this story:

Cylindrical fluorescent proteins engineered from jellyfish DNA could enable safer lasers that could map cells. By inserting a thin film of the fluorescent protein between two mirrors and directing a pulse of blue light from an external laser, the light-emitting molecules could coax laser light from the proteins. The laser could be embedded within cells and used for tracking by doctors or researchers, as the low energy requirements will not strain tissue or cells with too much energy, the researchers say.

Related: First-ever single-cell biological laser excites imagination