Scientists new Research Made Lasers out of Human Blood

Researchers have developed a blood laser, using human blood and a fluorescent dye called indocyanine green (ICG), and it could help doctors investigate for tumours in the body.
So how does this latest ‘blood laser’ work? To make a laser, all you require is a source of light, an amplifying material, and a insightful cavity. Researchers from the University of Michigan used an FDA-approved dye called ICG, and varied it with the blood to play the role of the amplifier.
"Without blood, presently ICG, it doesn’t work at every," one of the researchers, Xudong Fan, told Jacob Aron at New Scientist.

Once you have your cavity, an amplifying material, and basis of light, your laser is in business.
As Jennifer Ouellette explain for Gizmodo, once you zap the medium with light or electricity, it boosts the atoms to higher power levels, known as an ‘excited’ state.
"Then photons are pumped into the cavity. If one strikes an keyed up atom, that atom will drop back down to its ground state, release a second photon of the same frequency and way," she says.
Eventually, these carry on striking other energised atoms, release more protons until they create a burst of laser light.
When Fan and his group placed the blood and ICG in a reflective cylinder, and shot at with a near-infrared light beam, the blood emit light, creating a potential new technique for doctors use to look for for tumours.
Because ICG accumulates in blood vessels, areas with big amounts of blood vessels, like tumours, should light up like a Christmas tree.
The technique would just involve injecting the ICG into the patient, and shining a light beam at the skin, while checking an infrared camera for the glow.
The blood laser has yet to be experienced in live animal tissue, because they have to figure out what will play the role of the deep cavity. But Fan says that gold nanoparticles could be useful for the job.
"Finally, we are trying to do it in the human body," he told New Scientist, adding that they require to figure out how to ensure that the light produced by the blood laser isn’t too strong.
"You don’t want to burn the tissue," he said.
Blood isn’t still the only strange material that’s been used to create lasers - back in 2011, a different collection of researchers used a living kidney cell to amplify the light, and in the 1970s, two scientists even made a laser using jelly.
If they can help us locate and diagnose cancer extra efficiently, we’re all for it.