Biological lasers

Organic beings that create energy weapons are a staple of comic books and Japanese animation. As it turns out, there may now be some slight justification for that.

Living, biological raygun produced in lab
Glowing mammal-jellyfish chimera-blob emits laser beam

In short, scientists managed to turn cells that fluoresce into tiny little laser generators by putting them into tubes with mirrored ends. The power levels were not given, but I imagine they were real, real low.

Just offhand the idea sounds pointless. But the article does have one astonishingly useful idea:

“One of our long-term goals will be finding ways to bring optical communications and computing, currently done with inanimate electronic devices, into the realm of biotechnology,” explains the scientist. “That could be particularly useful in projects requiring the interfacing of electronics with biological organisms.”

What this could mean is hooking electronics directly into nervous systems. This would be especially useful for running cybernetic limbs for amputees. If the system can be made to work in reverse so that a pule of light from an optical fiber casues a cell to react, then artificial nervous systems could be built. Not only could an amputee run a robotic hand… he could *feel* the robotic hand. And potentially, a severed spine could be “bridged” with an optical system. It would be clumsy and probably slow compared to a functional spine, but it just might work.