From cosmetic to brain surgery, intense beams of coherent light are gradually replacing the steel scalpel for many procedures. Despite this increasing popularity, there is still a lot that scientists do not know about the ways in which laser light interacts with living tissue.

Statin drugs that help lower cholesterol may also be beneficial in preventing glaucoma progression according to the Wiley-Blackwell journal – Clinical & Experimental Ophthalmology.

Visible and ultraviolet laser light has been used for years to cool trapped atoms—and more recently larger objects—by reducing the extent of their thermal motion.

Electro Scientific Industries, Inc. (Nasdaq:ESIO), a leading provider of world-class photonic and laser systems for micro-engineering applications, received an order for the Model 9850 dual-beam infrared (IR) laser link-processing system from a new customer in Korea.

JDSU, a leading enabler of broadband and optical innovation, announced it has successfully demonstrated a photonic integrated circuit (PIC) that combines a tunable laser and optical modulator, using a technology known as the Integrated Laser Mach Zehnder (ILMZ).

Bookham, Inc. (Nasdaq: BKHM), a leading provider of optical components, modules and subsystems, today announced the shipment of its 100,000th InP Mach-Zehnder (MZ) modulator, a milestone that confirms the company’s leadership in this market .

In the Sept. 3 issue of Optical Society of America's Optics Express, published online today, researchers announce that they have built the world's first "mode-locked silicon evanescent laser."

Most people think of Sir Isaac Newton as the father of gravity. But for Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory physicist Henry Chapman and his colleagues, Newton's “dusty mirror” experiment served as a launching pad for them to keenly watch the X-ray induced explosion of microscopic objects.

On the night of 21 July, ESO astronomer Yuri Beletsky took images of the night sky above Paranal, the 2600m high mountain in the Chilean Atacama Desert home to ESO's Very Large Telescope. The amazing images bear witness to the unique quality of the sky, revealing not only the Milky Way in all its splendour but also the planet Jupiter and the laser beam used at Yepun, one of the 8.2-m telescopes that make up this extraordinary facility.

The rise in global terrorism in recent years has brought significant attention to the needs for more advanced sensors and defense technologies to protect civilians and soldiers.

A nanocomposite particle can be constructed so that it has a mix of properties that would not otherwise happen in nature. By combining an organic matrix with metallic clusters that can absorb light, it is possible to incorporate such particles into cells and then destroy those targeted cells with a laser.