A Laser Pacemaker

Pulses of light may replace electrical stimulation in some medical devices and experiments

3 min read

18 August 2010—A living quail embryo's heart can be forced to beat to the pulse of a laser, new research shows. The optical-pacing technique may allow scientists to investigate the origins of genetic defects in the heart and may help create a new class of medical devices.

Biomedical engineers at Case Western Reserve University, in Cleveland, and Vanderbilt University, in Nashville, used a laser beam with a 1.875-micrometer wavelength to force the quail embryo's heartbeat to speed up, changing the way that blood splashes against the walls of the heart. Having shown that they can control the pace of the organ with infrared light, the researchers now hope to test how different heart rates may trigger genetic defects that can later lead to heart failure.

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Illustration showing an astronaut performing mechanical repairs to a satellite uses two extra mechanical arms that project from a backpack.

Extra limbs, controlled by wearable electrode patches that read and interpret neural signals from the user, could have innumerable uses, such as assisting on spacewalk missions to repair satellites.

Chris Philpot

What could you do with an extra limb? Consider a surgeon performing a delicate operation, one that needs her expertise and steady hands—all three of them. As her two biological hands manipulate surgical instruments, a third robotic limb that’s attached to her torso plays a supporting role. Or picture a construction worker who is thankful for his extra robotic hand as it braces the heavy beam he’s fastening into place with his other two hands. Imagine wearing an exoskeleton that would let you handle multiple objects simultaneously, like Spiderman’s Dr. Octopus. Or contemplate the out-there music a composer could write for a pianist who has 12 fingers to spread across the keyboard.

Such scenarios may seem like science fiction, but recent progress in robotics and neuroscience makes extra robotic limbs conceivable with today’s technology. Our research groups at Imperial College London and the University of Freiburg, in Germany, together with partners in the European project NIMA, are now working to figure out whether such augmentation can be realized in practice to extend human abilities. The main questions we’re tackling involve both neuroscience and neurotechnology: Is the human brain capable of controlling additional body parts as effectively as it controls biological parts? And if so, what neural signals can be used for this control?

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