Daft Punk show or sceintific breakthough?

Science fiction recently became reality when Malte Gather and Seok Hyun Yun from the Wellman Center for Photomedicine at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston created the first "living laser."

While the term living laser first had me thinking of X-Men’s Cyclops, this laser is much smaller, in fact the entire laser resides within a single human cell.

In the early 90’s scientists learned how to isolate and reproduce the protein sequence in jellyfish that allows them to glow. Called GFP (green fluorescing protein) this protein was put into specific cells to make them glow under a microscope, making them easier to track on a slide.

Gaher and Yun were able to take a human cell and modify it to replicate the three basic components of a laser beam: a light source, a gain medium, and an optical resonator.  When an energy source is applied to these cells they produce a green laser.

While it is still unclear what place these microscopic bio-lasers have in the world of science and medicine it’s exciting to see the line between science fiction and the real world blur just a little more.