Researchers at Harvard University found that they could use fat cells to produce laser light. They inevitably chose pig fat because of the flavor. An MIT Technology Review article that was surprisingly not published on April Fools’ Day explains:
The team at Harvard University turning cells into lasers has tried it before. But last time they had to put the cells inside a special optical cavity to make them shine (see “Lasers Made from Human Cells”). Pumping light into a sphere can create the resonance that produces sharply defined laser light.
This time the team showed that some cells could lase on their own. They chose pig fat because each cell contains a large, nearly perfectly spherical ball of fat inside it. They added a glowing fluorescent dye and then started up the microlasers by shining in light through an optical fiber.
-via VA Viper | Photo: Nature Photonics