Laser cancer treatment and Martian imaging
Related News: Lasers and Health
The questions if laser light can be used to treat cancer patients and why is Martian water so important may appear to be unconnected, but they actually have many things in common.
Free public talks held at Cardiff International Arena on Tuesday 3 and Wednesday 4 September will debate both issues in exciting fields like the discovery relating to the use of optics and imaging in very different fields - medicine and planetary science.
"Light for the firm but gentle control of human disease" is the talk to be given by Steve Bown from the National Medical Laser Centre, University College London at 18.00 on Tuesday, descibing how high power laser beams can be sent deep into the body very precisely, by using flexible optical fibres no thicker than a piece of thread.
Lasers can stop ulcers bleeding and relieve the symptoms of some cancers - like the inability to swallow in advanced cancers of the gullet and benign lumps in the breast and womb can be "cooked" by inserting laser fibres through needles in the skin, which causes the lumps to disappear on their own.
It will also be described a treatment combining laser light with special drugs that make living tissue sensitive to light. Photodynamic therapy or PDT enables cancerous cells to be killed without having to perform surgery, so cancers can be removed without leaving an obvious scar.
This kind of therapy could be revolutionary to cancer treatment as we know it. This talk is sponsored by the Welsh Branch of the Institute of Physics.
"Imaging in space - looking at the surface of Mars" will be presented at 18.00 on 4 September by Andrew Coates from the Mullard Space Science Laboratory at University College London and will talk about the next craft to land on Mars, containing special equipment to take three-dimensional images of the Martian surface, and to study the Martian rocks, dust and water vapour in the atmosphere.
Water is a key commodity for life as we know it, and it has recently been discovered as close as one metre below the surface of Mars and Mars Express and Beagle 2 will look for information about Martian water under the surface using radar, and in the atmosphere using cameras and other instruments.
The talk will describe the mission, the design of the three-dimensional camera system and the search for Martian water and why this is so important. This talk is sponsored by Wales South East and Wales South West Branches of the Institution of Electrical Engineers.
Posted on September 20, 2005 01:05 PM
